Full text of "The ancient Coptic churches of Egypt"

See other formats

•CO

loo

!CD

•CD

THE

Ancient Coptic Churches
I of Egypt

VOL. II.

Honfton

HENRY FROWDE

OXFOED UNIVEBSITY PBESS WAKEHOUSE
AMEN CORNER

A Coptic Painting.

THE

Ancient Coptic Churches

of Egypt

ALFRED J. BUTLER, M.A. F.S.A,

Fellow of Brasenose College^ Oxford

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. II.

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1884

CONTENTS

OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

PAGE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi

CHAPTER I.

THE COPTIC ALTAR. — PORTABLE ALTAR. — FITTINGS OF THE

ALTAR.— COVERINGS OF THE ALTAR i

CHAPTER II.

EUCHARISTIC VESSELS AND ALTAR FURNITURE. — CHALICE.
—PATEN.— DOME OR ASTER.— SPOON.— ARK OR ALTAR
CASKET. — VEILS.— FAN. — EWER AND BASIN.— PYX.—
CREWET. — CHRISMATORY. — ALTAR -CANDLESTICKS. -
TEXTUS.— GOSPEL-STAND.— THURIBLE.— BRIDAL CROWN 37

CHAPTER III.

THE FURNITURE AND ORNAMENTS OF THE SACRED BUILD
ING.— AMBONS.— LECTERNS.— RELIQUARIES.— LAMPS AND
LIGHTS.— CORONAE.— OSTRICH EGGS.— BELLS.— MUSICAL
INSTRUMENTS.— MURAL PAINTINGS.— PICTURES . . 64

viii Contents.

CHAPTER IV,

PAGE

THE ECCLESIASTICAL VESTMENTS OF THE COPTIC CLERGY.—
PREVIOUS AUTHORITIES.— DALMATIC.— AMICE.— GIRDLE.
—STOLE.— PALL.— ARMLETS . . . . ... - . 97

CHAPTER V.

ECCLESIASTICAL VESTMENTS (CONTINUED). — PHELONION.—
CROWN OR MITRE.— CROZIER OR STAFF OF AUTHORITY.
—PECTORAL CROSS.— PROCESSIONAL CROSS.— SANDALS.
BENEDICTIONAL CROSS.— EPIGONATION— ROSARY . . 173

CHAPTER VI.

BOOKS, LANGUAGE, AND LITERATURE . . 239

CHAPTER VII.

THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS.— BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION.—
EUCHARIST.— PENANCE 262

CHAPTER VIII.

THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS (CONTINUED).— ORDERS.— MATRI
MONY.— ANOINTING OF THE SICK 301

CHAPTER IX.

VARIOUS RITES AND CEREMONIES OF THE CHURCH. — THE
HOLY OILS.— CONSECRATION OF A CHURCH AND ALTAR.
—CONSECRATION OF A BAPTISTERY.— FESTIVAL OF EPI
PHANY.— PALM SUNDAY AND HOLY WEEK.— SEASONS OF
FASTING •» . ... -33°

Contents. ix

CHAPTER x.

PAGE

LEGENDS OF THE SAINTS. — LEGEND OF ABU-'S-SIFAIN. —
ANBA SHANUDAH.— MARI M!NA.— MARI TADRUS.— MARI
GlRGIS. — ABU KlR WA YUHANNA. — YAKUB AL MUKATT'A.
—THE FIVE AND THEIR MOTHER. — ABU NAFR. — ANBA
BARSUM AL 'ARIAN.— THE VIRGIN'S ASCENSION. — SIMAN
AL HABIS AL 'AMUDI.— MAR!NA. — TAKLA.— ABU SlKHl-
RUN.— ST. SOPHIA.— ST. HELENA.— THE FINDING OF THE
CROSS.— GIRGIS OF ALEXANDRIA.— ANBA MAHARUAH. —
ST. MICHAEL. — ANBA ZACHARIAS. — PETER THE PATRI
ARCH.— ANBA MARKUS ' .. . . . • . -357

INDEX TO VOL. n. 405

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. II.

A Coptic Painting . . . . . . frontispiece

Coptic Altar ; . . ..'... . . *" . . 4

Marble Altar-slab • . .' 8

Altar-top showing marble slab inlet 8

Marble Altar-slab pierced with drain 9

Consecration Crosses . . . . . . . .21

Silk Curtain with massive silver embroidery, before the Haikal

door at Al Mu'allakah 31

Various pieces of Church Furniture 41

The Hasirah or Eucharistic Mat 45

Flabellum in repousse silver 47

Processional Flabellum of silver-gilt used by the Melkite

Church of Alexandria 49

Textus Case of silver-gilt 58

Gospel-stands with Prickets for Candles ...'.. 59
Bridal Crown .......... 62

Ivory-inlaid Lectern at the Cathedral in Cairo ... 66
Ivory-inlaid Lectern (back view) . . . . .67

Ancient Iron Candelabrum at Abu-'s-Sifain . . . . - 70

Glass Lamp at Sitt Mariam 72

Bronze Lamp at Dair Tadrus . . . . ... .73

Seven-wicked Lamp of Iron for the Anointing of the Sick . 76
Specimens of Altar Candlesticks . . . . ' . .76

Embroidered Dalmatic no

Shamlah (back and front view) . . . . ; . .119

xii List of Illustrations,

PAGE

Patrashil of crimson velvet embroidered with silver . .130
St. Stephen : from a painting at Abu Sargah . . . • . 137

Seal of the Coptic Patriarch .151

Fresco at Al Mu'allakah 156

St. Michael: from a painting at Abu Sargah . . . .159

Armlets at the Church of Abu Kir 167

The Crown of the Coptic Patriarch 205

Priestly Cap . ... 211

Coptic Crozier ' . . . . 220

Benedictional Cross and small Amulet Crosses . . . 232

Head of Processional Cross of silver 234

Wafer or Eucharistic Bread ....... 278

THE

ANCIENT COPTIC CHURCHES
OF EGYPT.

ERRATA. -Vol. II.

P. 47, insert ' scale f .' Fig. 8.

P. 1 1 8, 1. 19, for and read or

P. 151, insert 'scale §.' Fig. 24.

P. 281, 1. 23, for is unfermented, and m&/ is not unfermented, but

nas rather the meaning of 'placing' or 'leaving'
than of sacrifice. In point of usage ojcooaji con
veyed the idea of sacrifice to the Copts and no
other. Accordingly we find the corresponding Arabic
word used in the liturgies and in common speech is
g^L>*> (madbah) derived from gjo which means to
slaughter, so that the idea is clearly that of a sacrificial
structure like the Ovo-iaa-Trjpioi' of the Greek Church.
The same word madbah is used now by the Nes-
torians1. The Greeks often call the altar the holy

1 G. P. Badger, The Nestorians and their Rituals, vol. i. p. 228
( (London, 1852).

VOL. II. B

THE

ANCIENT COPTIC CHURCHES
OF EGYPT.

CHAPTER I.
Of the Coptic Altar.

Altar. — Portable Altar. — Fittings of the Altar. — Coverings of the

Altar.

TYMOLOGICALLY the Coptic term for
altar seems to correspond very closely with
the Greek. For JUL£.nepciju)oaji, which is
the ordinary word, means ' place of making
sacrifice': nor is the significance of this etymology
lessened by the fact that the remote root in ancient
Egyptian, from which the Coptic ojooouji is derived,
has rather the meaning of 'placing' or 'leaving'
than of sacrifice. In point of usage ojuoouji con
veyed the idea of sacrifice to the Copts and no
other. Accordingly we find the corresponding Arabic
word used in the liturgies and in common speech is
£^cM> (madbah) derived from g^o which means to
slaughter, so that the idea is clearly that of a sacrificial
structure like the QwiavTrjpLov of the Greek Church.
The same word madbah is used now by the Nes-
torians1. The Greeks often call the altar the holy

1 G. P. Badger, The Nestorians and their Rituals, vol. i. p. 228
(London, 1852).

VOL. ii. B

Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.

table (ay (a TpaTre^a), and in Latin the term ' mensa'
or ' sancta mensa' is sometimes used for ' altare/
Thus in a letter of Pope Nicholas I. * mensa effici-
tur :' and Fortunatus1 says the name is given ' quod
est mensa Domini, in qua convivabatur cum disci-
pulis/ But the Copts are not apparently conscious
of any such symbolism, nor do they commonly if
ever speak of the altar as a table ; although they do
regard it under two other symbolical aspects, as
representing the tomb of Christ and the throne of
God. The manner in which these types are figured
in the ritual and decoration of the altar will appear
in the sequel.

Every altar in a Coptic church is invariably de
tached, and stands clear in the middle of its chapel
or sanctuary. Though the haikal and the side-
chapels are usually raised one step above the choir,
the altar is never raised further on other steps, but
stands on the level of the floor ; yet an exception to
this rule is found in the desert churches, where the
altar is elevated on a step or platform above the
floor of the haikal. The custom of attaching the
lesser altars to the wall in western churches is doubt
less very ancient ; but originally the high altar
always stood clear, so that the celebrant might move
around it. This is proved by the words of the
Sarum Rite2, * thurificando altare circueat,' and again
' principale altare circumquaque aspergat.' So too
in the Ecgbert Pontifical3 we read ' in circuitu ipsius
altaris.' Gradually, however, the altar was moved
up to the eastern wall, and became attached and fixed
there, which, of course, was the usual though not

1 De Ecclesiae Officiis, torn. iii. p. 21.
2 C. 25 and 28. 3 P. 40.

CH. i.] The Altar. 3

invariable arrangement in our churches before the
reformation. In the seventeenth century, after the
destruction of the ancient altars, in many places a
detached communion-table was placed in the chancel
with benches against the wall all round it. This
arrangement was distinctively Puritan in character :
it still survives in one or two churches, such as the
interesting little Saxon church of Deerhurst near
Tewkesbury, and the chapel of Langley, Salop.
The Puritans were probably not aware of their re
version to primitive practice : and their thoughts, of
course, were very far removed from processions and
incense.

The Coptic altar is a four-sided mass of brickwork
or stonework, sometimes hollow, sometimes nearly
solid throughout, and covered with plaster. It ap
proaches more nearly to a cubical shape than the
altars of the western churches. It is never built of
wood1 (though very curiously the high altar at Abu-'s-
Sifain is cased in wood), nor upheld on pillars. As
a rule the structure of the top does not differ from
that of the side walls, but contains an oblong rect
angular sinking about an inch deep, in which is loosely
fitted the altar-board — a plain piece of wood carved
with the device of a cross in a roundel in the centre,
A above and n below this, and the sacred letters of
Sanutius IH XP YC 0C at the four corners. This
arrangement, by which the chalice and paten stand
at the mass upon a wooden base, while the fabric of

1 I have heard a traveller speak of a wooden altar at Girgah
in the form of a table. In remote places such violations of right
and custom may occur through indolence, ignorance, or indiffer
ence. But the evidence is not very weighty. Vide Arch. Journ.
vol. xxix. p. 123 n.

B 2

Fig. 1.

CH. i.] The Altar. 5

the altar is of stonework, presents a complete and
singular reversal of the Latin practice : for the Roman
rubric enjoins that, even where wood is the main
material of the altar, a tablet of marble or stone
must be placed for the sacred elements to rest upon
at consecration.

On the eastward side in every altar, level with
the ground, is a small open doorway showing an
interior recess or cavity. Whether or not this door
way was originally closed by a moveable stone or
board is uncertain : but there is in no case any sign
of the opening ever having been blocked or closed,
and no door-stone or the like exists in any church
to-day. The cavity is of varying size ; but very
often it is nearly co-extensive with the altar, which
in that case consists merely of four walls and a top
of masonry. Where the masonry is more solid, the
recess is still large enough to denote a usage rather
different from that of the corresponding recess in
western altars, e.g. in the sixth-century altar at the
church of Enserune and Joncels in H6rault. These
have openings in the back or eastward face, but high
up under the slab and of small dimensions. The
nearest approach in structure to the Coptic altar
occurs at Parenzo in the altar of St. Euphrasius
ascribed to the sixth century1.

In the Latin Church the altar was generally a solid
structure, and the top, at least in all historic times,
was required to be of stone or marble as an essential
condition of consecration. The top too had to be a
single slab projecting on all sides and forming a shelf.
The Greek Church to the present day retains its
* " • • — «

1 La Messe, vol. i. pi. xxvii and xxxiv,

6 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.

ancient, more ordinary custom of supporting the altar-
top on four pillars. This top is of stone. Goar
states that the Greek altar was invariably a table,
open underneath and resting on four columns. But
in the office of dedication as given by the same
author1, it is expressly provided that the substructure
may be solid, consisting either of a single block of
stone, or of smaller stones in courses. But from the
earliest times the table-like form seems to have been
far more common. Thus Paul the Silentiary, in his
description of St. Sophia, says the altar of Constan-
tine was made of gold and silver and costly woods,
and adorned with pearls and jewels. It was raised
on steps, and stood on golden columns resting upon
foundations of gold. The * costly woods' were doubt
less used for some kind of inlaying or outer embel
lishment, and cannot be taken to imply any sanction
of an entirely wooden altar, which does not seem to
have been canonical in any part of the Christian
world after the fourth century. Up to that date
wood was doubtless a common material in Africa.
Thus a wooden table is mentioned by Athanasius
and by Optatus bishop of Milevis c. 370 A.D.

Assernan states2 that the altars of the Syrian
Jacobites and Maronites in the East were sometimes
of wood, sometimes of stone. So too in Gaul the
earliest altars were wooden. Yet stone altars were
used as early as the fourth century, and in more
historical times stone was the sole material recog
nized. Thus among the Nestorians wooden altars
are plainly prohibited by the canons : those of John,
fifty-seventh patriarch, in the tenth century ordain
that the altar must be fixed and made of stone in

1 Euchol. p. 832. 2 Bibl. Orient, iii. 238.

*H. i.] The Altar. 7

settled abodes and times of peace1. So too one of
the canonical judgments of Abu Isa is to the effect
that, where men are dwelling in a city free from per
secution and peril, there the altar may never be
made of wood : but if they are in some place where
a stone altar is impossible, then a wooden altar may be
used by force of necessity. But a bishop may always
destroy an altar, if he think well2. The wooden
altars mentioned by Mr. Warren3, as used in the
early Irish church of St. Bridget and elsewhere,
were probably only an accident of the time when
the whole fabric of the church building was merely
of wood: and in the Anglo-Saxon ritual it was
expressly forbidden to consecrate a wooden altar.
Both in the Greek and Latin ordinances it was pre
scribed that the altar-top should project beyond the
sides or pillars of the altar ; but there is only one
instance of such a projection in the altars of the
Copts. With them too the top is rarely formed of
a single slab. Commonly it is a mere plastered sur
face, like the sides, with an altar-board4 as described.
Where a stone slab is used, it is hollowed to a depth
of two inches, leaving a border or fillet all round,
and usually inserted thus in the masonry so that the
fillet is flush with the altar-top. These slabs, though
common in the desert, are so rare in Cairo that I
have only seen four in all the churches there, three

1 J. A. Asseman, De Catholicis seu Patriarchis Chaldaeorum et
Nestorianorum Commentarius, p. 112. Rome, 1775.

2 Id. p. 118, n. i. 3 Celtic Church, p. 91.

4 The Arabic term for this altar-board is merely — Jlil, ' the slab.'
A similar slab is prescribed as necessary in the constitutions of the
Church of Antioch by the patriarch Kyriakos ; see Renaudot, Lit.
Or. torn. i. p. 165.

Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.

being at Al Mu'allakah, and one at Abu-'s-Sifain.
Of the four, two are horseshoe shaped, one circular,
and one is rectangular, pierced with a hole in the
centre. They occupy the greater part of the top
surface, but not the whole summit of the altar, with
the possible exception of the rectangular slab, which
I only saw dismounted after the altar had been dis
mantled. There are however three other small
rectangular slabs, which ought perhaps to be added
to the number, namely those on the floor of the re-

XLJ.I

SCALE OF FEET
Fig. 2. (i) Marble Altar-slab.

SCCTIO N 4 .I'd B

(ii) Altar-top showing marble slab inlet.

cesses or arcosolia in the crypt of Abu Sargah.
From the position of two of the recesses in the north
and south walls instead of the east, it might be doubt
ful whether these slabs were designed for altars, or for
some other purpose : but I think the analogy with
Roman arcosolia, and a comparison of these stones
with other stones described above, will tell in favour
of the belief that all the slabs in the crypt denote
altars. The design is at once so rare and so marked
that, wherever it is found, it may fairly be assumed
that the purpose is identical. In that case the num-

CH. I.]

The Altar.

her of Cairene altar-slabs of marble with raised fillet
will amount to seven : a very small proportion.

On the other hand the monastic churches of the
western desert abound in altars with slabs of this
description, — which are, in fact, as normal there as
they are exceptional in the churches of the two Cairos.
It is not easy to understand this remarkable differ
ence between the altars of the desert and the capital :
nor can one see why the examples in Cairo are fur
nished by the three main altars at Al Mu'allakah, by

i o

A.J.B.

SCALE OF FEET
Fig. 3.— Marble Altar-slab pierced with drain.

the altars of the crypt at Abu Sargah, and by a
single altar in a small exterior chapel at Abu-'s-
Sifain. Of course where the altar-top is formed of
a marble slab in this manner, the ordinary loose
rectangular plank of wood graven with the sacred
monogram — the altar-board as I have called it —
does not occur. That the marble slab was designed
with special reference to the ancient ceremony of
washing the altar, cannot I think be doubted : for it
is proved by the presence of the raised moulding,

io Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.

by the break in the border generally found on the
western side of the slab to let off the water, and in one
example by a drain in the centre of the slab. The
case is further strengthened by the hitherto unre
marked but very striking coincidence of western usage.
At the church of Sta. Pudentiana in Rome there
is a rectangular slab, about 4ft. 6 in. by 4ft. 2 in.,
dating from the fourth century : it is surrounded by
a raised moulding and pierced with two drains, one
of which is in the centre1. Slabs unpierced and
surrounded with unbroken mouldings are of very
frequent occurrence from the earliest times in Europe.
The fifth-century altar of St. Victor at Marseilles,
and the sixth-century slab of the Auriol altar, may
be cited among very early examples2. The Society
of Antiquaries of the West of France possesses a very
interesting slab of this kind, found in the church of
Vouneuil-sous-Biard3, and ascribed to the sixth cen
tury: a seventh-century example is preserved in the
museum at Valognes4: the altar of S. Angelo at
Perusia, built in the tenth century, of Vaucluse in the
eleventh, and at Toulouse in the twelfth, show how
continuous in the West was the design of altar-slabs
framed with a raised moulding.

Nor are we altogether without a western parallel
for the curious horseshoe or semicircular slabs of the
Coptic altar. In the museum at Vienna is a marble

1 La Messe, pi. xliv. On p. 1 1 2 M. de Fleury observes : ' Les
trous qu'on remarque sur la surface doivent provenir d'un autre
usage qui n'a rien de commun avec son origine, ou servaient au
lavage de Tantel? The italics are mine : I think the Coptic
examples settle the point.

2 La Messe, vol. i. pi. xlvi, xlvii.

3 Id. ib. pi. xliv. p. 147. 4 Id. ib. pi. xlv.

CH. I.]

The Altar. 11

slab, said to be of Merovingian origin, dating from
the sixth or seventh century : it is semicircular in
form with three sinkings of different levels, the
outermost being six-lobed, the other two semicir
cular ; but all three have a broken angular line across
the chord, singularly resembling the Coptic model1.
Another semicircular altar-slab is to be seen in the
museum of Clermont. I have no doubt that this
particular form arose from the desire of imitating the
table of the Last Supper, which in Coptic art is
sometimes figured in the same shape. A glance at
the Abu Sargah carving of the eighth century2
almost decides the matter. There our Lord
is sitting with his disciples at a table of almost
exactly the same form as the Coptic horseshoe
slabs, and the table has a border or moulding round
it : moreover the intention is rendered quite un
ambiguous by the canopy above the table and the
altar-curtains which are looped round the pillars.
Western art furnished abundant examples of the
same idea : thus the semicircular table is depicted
in the catacombs of St. Calixtus, the mosaics of
St. Apollinare at Ravenna, on the columns of the
ciborium at St. Mark's, and in a miniature at
Cambridge3.

As in the western so in the Coptic Church, there
seem to have been no fixed dimensions for the altar.
English altars varied from 8 ft. to 14 ft. 6 in. in
length, but were usually 3 ft. 6 in. high. The Coptic
altar is .smaller: that for instance at St. Mark's
chapel in Al Mu'allakah is 3 ft. n in. long by
3 ft. 3 in. broad : the principal altar at Abu Sargah

1 La Messe, vol. i. pi. Hi. 2 See vol. i. p. 191.

3 La Messe, vol. ii. p. 164.

12 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.

is 4ft. sj in. by 3 ft. 3 in. : at Abu-'s-Sifain the prin
cipal altar is 7 ft. i in. by 4ft. 3 in. The height too
varies considerably : thus the chief altar at Abu
Sargah is only 2 ft. lo^in. high, and that at Abu-'s-
Sifain is 3 ft. 4 in.

The cavity, which has been mentioned as opening
eastward in the altar, has doubtless a symbolical
reference to the martyr-souls seen under the altar
in the apocalyptic vision1. In the early ages of the
church, in reminiscence of this vision, it was cus
tomary to bury the bodies of saints or martyrs
underneath the altar, either in a vault or crypt
beneath the floor of the sanctuary, or else actually
within the fabric of the altar. One of the most
notable instances of this practice was at the ancient
patriarchal church of Alexandria, where rested the
body of St. Mark the Evangelist, before the church
was plundered and the sacred remains carried over
sea by the Venetians in the early middle ages.
And to this day the high altar of St. Mark's at
Venice encloses the body of the Evangelist, and
bears the inscription ' Sepulcrum Marci.' In more
tranquil times and places, when a new church was
built, and no famous martyr's body was ready to
hallow the sanctuary, the usage still prevailed of
placing within the altar relics of some saint or
anchorite. There is nothing to show that the
cavity in the Coptic altar was meant to be sealed
up, once the relics were deposited. On the contrary,
the probability seems that they were merely enclosed
in some kind of coffer, and then laid under the altar,
so as to be easily removable in case they were
required for healing the sick, carrying in procession,

1 Rev. vi. 9.

CH. i.] The Altar. 13

or other ritual purposes. At the present day every
Coptic church possesses its relics, which are enclosed
in a sort of bolster covered with silk brocade and
kept in a locker beneath the picture of the patron
saint. At Al Muallakah, it will be remembered,
there is a special wooden reliquary containing four
such cases besides a marble grill in the south aisle-
chapel : and some of the desert churches have
reliquaries enclosing entire bodies. But there can
be little doubt that the practice of keeping relics
in lockers or aumbries is of mediaeval origin, and
that originally their right place was in the cavity
under the altar. Two or three examples of Coptic
subterranean altars have been cited in the foregoing
chapters of this work : but probably the clearest
instance of a confessionary crypt is at Abu Sargah,
though there is no direct evidence to show that it is
regarded as the tomb of any martyr. Still, inas
much as tradition marks this under-chapel as the
resting-place of the Holy Family, and therefore con
secrated in a special manner by a holy presence, the
building of the high altar of Abu Sargah above it
gives a close enough analogy to the western practice.
Moreover the eastern niche in the crypt bears a very
singular resemblance to the arcosolium in the tomb
of St. Gaudiosus at Naples 1, dating from about
460 A.D., and to other arcosolia of the fourth and
fifth centuries at Rome, some of which undoubtedly
served as altars : nor are the other recesses of the
crypt very different. The whole plan is singularly
like that of the crypt of St. Gervais at Rouen '2.

1 See La Messe, vol. i. pp. 106-7, an<^ P^ xxiv; also Roma
Sotteranea, vol. iii. p. 44.

2 La Messe, vol. ii. p. 118.

14 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.

At present, as far as I can ascertain, the chief if
not the sole use of the altar-cavity among the Copts
is on Good Friday, when a picture of the cross is
buried in rose leaves within it, to be uncovered on
Easter morning.

In the Latin Church the use of relics for the con
secration of an altar, and the association — confusion
one might almost say — between the ideas of sacrifice
and sepulture, reach back to the remotest antiquity.
Thus Jerome remarks *, ' Romanus Episcopus . . .
super mortuorum hominum Petri et Pauli secundum
nos ossa veneranda . . . offert Domino sacrificia et
tumulos eorum Christi arbitratur altaria.' The place
where the relics were laid was called technically the
sepulcrum, and in England the sepulchre was always
in front or on the westward side of the altar : the
idea being that the congregation in the nave, and
not as in the Coptic arrangement the elders round
the apse, should be thus reminded of the ' souls
under the altar.' In the crypt under the south
chancel aisle at Grantham Abbey the cavity is 3 ft.
2 in. long by 2 ft. 4 in. broad. The cavity was always
closed by a sealed slab engraved with five crosses,
such as may still be seen in the cathedrals of
Norwich and St. David's. A very early instance,
dating probably from the fourth century, occurs in
the church of San Giacomo Scossacavallo at Rome2,
where the cavity is in the middle of the altar-top,
which legend says was once upon the altar of pre
sentation in the temple of Jerusalem. This same
altar at S. Giacomo has a second sepulcrum or
confessio below, with an arched doorway very like

1 Tom. ii. adv. Vigilant, p. 153, quoted by Gibbon.

2 La Messe, vol. i. pi. xxiv.

CH.I.] The Altar. 15

the Coptic arrangement. Other examples are fur
nished by an altar at the church of Esquelmes in
Belgium, All Saints chapel at Ratisbonne, and the
altar in the north transept of Jervaulx Abbey, where
the sealed slab was only 6^ in. by 7^ in. Though
the confessio or crypt below the altar is quite
distinct from the sepulcrum, yet the two terms are
sometimes used interchangeably. Thus in the
Ecgbert Pontifical x at the consecration of an altar
the bishop is directed to make a cross with chrism
in the middle and at the four corners of the * con
fessio,' where the slab of the ' sepulcrum ' is clearly
intended. So too in the Ordo Romanus exactly the
same form is prescribed in the words * ponat crisma in
confessionem per angulos quattuor in crucem . . . tune
ponat tabulam super relliquias.' The true confes-
sionary or crypt seems to have been introduced into
England by the Roman missionaries, and is in fact
essentially Latin2. It does not occur in any Saxon
churches, except such as were built under the influ
ence of Italian models, and is quite unknown in
Ireland. Eadmer, c. 1000 A.D., describes that at
Canterbury as made expressly in imitation of the
crypt under the original basilican church of St. Peter
at Rome. In the high altar was buried the body of
Wilfrid of York, and in the Jesus altar the head of
St. Swithin : while in the confessionary were the
head of St. Furseus and the tomb of St. Dunstan.
At Canterbury and elsewhere there was a flight of
steps leading from the choir to the presbytery, the
stone floor of which was thus raised four or five feet
above the choir floor : underneath it was the subter-

1 P. 45- 2 Hist. Eng. Ch. Arch. p. 47, &c.

1 6 Ancient Coptic Churches. LCH. i.

ranean chapel with its own altar and shrine l. The
name is clearly given in the Ceremoniale Episco-
porum2: ' locum qui in plerisque ecclesiis sub altari
majori esse so let ubi et mar ty rum corpora requiescunt
qid martyrium seu confessio appellatur' The crypt
too was sometimes called confessorium, and Du Cange
quotes from the ' Laudes Papiae apud Muratorem '
as follows : ' Fifteen churches are found having very
large crypts with vaulted roofs upheld on marble
columns : these are called confessoria, and in them
bodies of saints rest within marble coffers.' Richard,
prior of Hexham, says of St. Wilfrid's church there,
about 1 1 80 A.D., that there were many chapels below
the several altars throughout the building. Mr.
Scott gives instances of Saxon crypts at Brixworth,
Wing, and Repton : and of later crypts at York, Old
St. Paul's, Winchester, Gloucester and elsewhere.
I may add that a very good instance of a confes-
sionary occurs in the church of St. Clement at
Hastings. But essential as the presence of relics
was considered in the early ages of the church, in
later times, despite the miraculous power of multi
plying possessed by martyrs' bones, there seems
to have been a dearth of such remains, and altars
were consecrated without them. In a MS. of the
fifteenth century, now in the British Museum 3, may
be found a rubric providing that the practice of
placing relics inside the altar ' raro fiat . . . propter
relliquiarum paucitatem.' This ordinance, hitherto
unnoticed, was pointed out to me by Mr. Middleton.
Corresponding to the altar-cavity of the Coptic

1 See Rock, Church of our Fathers, vol. i. p. 219.

2 Lib. i. c. 12.

3 Lansdowne, 451, fol. 137 a.

CH. i.] The Altar. 17

Church and the sepulcrum of the Latin, there was
always a place beneath the Greek altar (sub altari
locum excavatum J), called the sea, OdXacra-a or
6a\aa-a-tBLov. Here were thrown away the rinsings
from the priests' hands and the water used for
washing the sacred vessels ; and here were laid the
ashes of holy things, such as vestments or corporals,
that were burnt by fire by reason of their decay.
These uses give some colour to the derivation of
the term propounded by Ligaridius, who says that
the idea comes from the lustral service of the sea,
because in the words of Euripides OdXaao-a -rravra
KXvfci. The thalassa no doubt was pierced with a
drain to carry off the rinsings, and so far corre
sponded with the western piscina. Moreover, in
early times the piscina in English churches was a
drain at the foot of the altar on the westward side.
This is proved for instance by the words of the
Ecgbert Pontifical, according to which the holy water
that is left over after sprinkling a church at dedica
tion is poured ' at the base of the altar.' There is
also a symbolical reason assignable ; for as the altar
figures the throne in heaven of St. John's vision,
so this thalassa figures the sea by the throne. Besides
the uses above given the thalassa had a further
purpose as a receptacle for vestments on the eve of
a festival, for which they were specially hallowed by
being placed under the altar2. In the thalassa too,
as in the sepulcrum, relics were sometimes though
rarely placed : usually they were kept in separate
chests or coffers, as became the later practice in the
Latin and the Coptic churches alike. Evagrius for

1 Goar, Euchol. p. 15. 2 Id. p. 518.

VOL. IT. C

1 8 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.

example l speaks of a ' finely wrought shrine of silver'
used as a reliquary. Goar, after asserting that the
altar was merely a table on four columns, states that
the relics, which by the Greek canons were absolutely
essential to the dedication of a church, were placed
either inside the slab or else inside the pillars. But
I have already shown part of this statement to be
erroneous, inasmuch as the rubric for dedication
allows the altar to be built up as a solid structure.
When moreover we read of the thalassa being the
place in which the relics sometimes though rarely
were deposited ; the right conclusion doubtless is,
that where the rarer, i.e. the solid form of altar pre
vailed, there the thalassa, being walled all round like
the Coptic cavity, served to give the relics a shelter
and security which they would not receive under the
open table-altar. The hollow form of the Greek
altar is expressly mentioned in early times. Thus
Ardon, Abbe" of Aniane, who died in 82 1 A.D., writes :
' Altare illud forinsecus est solidum, ab intus autem
cavum, retrorsum habens ostiolum, quo privatis
diebus inclusae tenentur capsae cum diversis relliquiis
Patrum V And of vestments we read : * vespera
praecedente, sanctum habitum suscepturi vestimenta
ad sanctum altare asportantur et in sanctae mensae
gremio seu mari (eV r<S 6a\acrcri8ia) rrj? ayias rpaTre^s)
reponuntur3.' Conversely, altars supported on columns
are sometimes found in Latin churches. An altar
on four pillars is depicted in the mosaics of the
baptistery at S. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna ;
similar is the altar of St. Rusticus at Minerve in

1 Hist. lib. ii. c. 3.

2 Thiers, Les Principaux Autels des Eglises, p. 20. Paris, 1688,

3 Id. ib. p. 33.

CH. i.] The Altar. 19

Herault, dated 457 A.D.1 The slab in the Vienna
museum rested on three supports : as did a slab in
the church of SS. Vincent and Anastasius at Rome.
A single central pillar is found in the case of an
altar of the seventh century at Cavaillon, and another
at Six-Fours 2.

There seems to have been nothing in the structure
of Greek churches corresponding to the confessionary.
Neither in the description of St. Sophia nor in any
other record, as far as I know, is any indication of
it : and this fact, taken in connexion with the many
analogies existing between Greek and Coptic usage,
so far bears out the idea that the arrangement of the
crypt at Abu Sargah is accidental, and is not a
martyr's shrine placed intentionally beneath the high
altar. It will be remembered too that the only other
example of a subterranean chapel in a Cairo church,
the chapel of Barsum al 'Arian at Abu-'s-Sifain, is
not merely not under the high altar but is outside
the main church altogether : while in regard to the
examples in Upper Egypt information is wanting.
The church of Anba Bishoi in the Natrun valley
has a curious cavity showing under the patriarchal
throne in the tribune, which may possibly have been
designed for relics.

One further point remains. In western Christen
dom the altar was nearly always marked with five
crosses incised on the slab, one in the centre, and
one at each of the four corners. These are called
consecration crosses, and are sculptured in the places
where the bishop at dedication signed the sign of
the cross with chrism, and burnt over each spot a

1 La Messe, vol. i. pi. xliii.

2 Id. ib. pi. Ivi and Ixxv.

C 2

2o Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.

little heap of incense and two crossed tapers. In
England most of the original altar-slabs were thrown
down at the reformation or in Puritan times, and
used as paving-stones or tombstones. Some few
remain in situ, such as on the high altar at Peter-
church in Hereford; in the parish church at Forth-
ampton, Gloucester ; the collegiate choir at Arundel ;
the chapels of St. Mary Magdalene and of Maison
Dieu at Ripon. A very good example was the
splendid slab on the high altar at Tewkesbury
Abbey (re-discovered and replaced by Mr. Mid-
dleton), but unfortunately the crosses have been
almost obliterated by a process of repolishing. A
slab used as a tombstone may be seen in the north
aisle of St. Mary's, West Ham, Pevensey, and ex
amples are not uncommon elsewhere.

The Greek rite does not differ materially from
the English, except that the cross is marked in three
places instead of five on the slab — and of the three
crosses one is in the centre, one at each side. The
crosses, however, are rather larger ; for the chrism is
poured out in the form of a cross, as at baptism.
Though the corners of the slab are not marked,
yet each of the four pillars upholding it is signed
by the pontiff with three crosses of chrism ; and it is
probable that on all the places thus anointed the
figure of a cross was afterwards incised in the stone.
On the whole altar, therefore, there would be fifteen
consecration crosses.

The Coptic altar bears no incised crosses other
than those which are cut upon the slab of wood ;
and where this slab is wanting, the marble top does
not generally show the symbol of consecration,
though there is a single large cross sculptured on

CH. I.]

The Altar.

two of the three slabs in the crypt at Abu Sargah.
But the Egyptian custom is said to tally with the
Greek, three crosses of chrism being anointed on
the altar at its dedication in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost respectively1. The
use of chrism for the consecration of the altar is
particularly mentioned by Renaudot, who, speaking
of the church of St. Macarius in the Natrun valley,
says, ' ecclesiae consecratio facta est episcoporum et

Fig. 4. — Consecration Crosses.

1. On the columns of Al 'A^ra, Harat-az-Zuailah. 2. On the columns at Abu Sargah.
3 and 4. On the slabs in the recesses of the crypt at Abu Sargah.

ipsius patriarchae ministerio, chrismatis tarn ad altare
quam ad parietes consignationibus factis V This was
in the time of Benjamin, thirty-eighth patriarch, or
about 620 A.D. Even though Renaudot is some-

1 See Vansleb, Histoire de 1'Eglise d'Alexandrie, p. 220 (Paris,
1677).

2 Historia Patriarcharum Alexandrinorum, p. 166

22 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.

what fond of assuming the existence of Coptic rites
on the analogy of the Latin, there is on this point
every reason for believing his testimony. For, apart
from more direct evidence, since it is unquestionable
that consecration crosses were made on the walls
and columns, just as in the Greek and western rituals;
it is scarcely possible that the chrism should have
been used to anoint the fabric of the building, and
not used to anoint its most sacred part, the altar.
The rubric for the re-consecration of a defiled altar
in Gabriel's Pontifical1 speaks of five crosses, appa
rently one on the top and one on each of the sides.
But where exactly the crosses were made is uncer
tain. There is, as was mentioned, a central cross
carved on the altar-board, which fits into an oblong
depression on all such altars as have not a marble
top. Probably one cross of chrism at least was
marked by the bishop upon the wooden slab,
though this would be against the western prac
tice, which disallows the use of chrism upon wood.
Indeed that the Copts did not scruple to use chrism
on a wooden surface seems proved by another pas
sage in Gabriel's Pontifical, headed in Renaudot
' Consecratio tabulae ut altare fiat.' Subsequently
the words * benedic huic tabulae ligneae, ut fiat altare
sanctum et mensa sancta pro altari excelso et lapide
exstructo,' seem to point to the tabula decisively as
a portable altar, although possibly the word may
denote the wooden slab, which is the common
appurtenance of the stone altar. In any case the
rubric runs : * tune accipiet chrisma sanctum et ex
eo signabit tabulam in modum crucis in quattuor

1 Lit. Or. torn. i. p. 56. ' Quinquies mensam et ejus quattuor
latera cruce signabit.'

CH.

The Altar. 23

ipsius lateribus;' though here again the points
anointed with the holy oil are not clearly denned.

Nevertheless, even though the slab be used on
occasion as a portable altar, the very fact that it
is detached from the stone structure and easily re-
moveable makes it unlikely that the symbols of
dedication should have been confined to that part.
We must imagine then that the chrism was anointed
on the top or walls of the altar itself, in places of
which no sculptured record is preserved.

It has been already mentioned that a Coptic
church always possesses three altars in contradistinc
tion to the single altar of the Greek ritual. The
side altars are, however, used only on the occasion
of the great festivals, namely, Easter, Christmas,
Palm Sunday, and the feast of the Exaltation of
the Cross1. On these days more than a single
celebration is required ; and the result is obtained
without violating the Coptic canons, which forbid
a second celebration on the same altar within the
day. The altar, like the communicant, must be
* fasting/ as the Copts phrase it ; and the same
expression is applied to vestments and vessels
which are used in the ceremonial of the mass.

So many points of resemblance may be noted
between Coptic and Armenian practice, that it is
not surprising to find the Armenian Church uphold
ing the same canon, and consequently requiring
three as the normal number of altars2; there is,
however, this difference, that the side-altars in the
sacred buildings of the Armenians stand before the

1 Abu Dakn omits Easter, but seems wrong. See his History,
tr. by Sir E. Sadleir (London, 1693), p. 13.

2 Fortescue's Armenian Church, p. 177.

24 Ancient Coptic Chzirckes. [CH. i.

sanctuary or in some other place, and not in a line
with the high altar and behind one continuous
screen, as usual in the Coptic arrangement. Yet
the Armenian church at Urfa is described as having
' three aisles/ i. e., nave and two aisles, c and an altar
at the end of each aisle' 1 ; the bishop's throne is in
the north-east corner of the choir, and faces east.

Several altars seem to be allowed in the ritual of
the Syrian Jacobites, of the Nestorians, and of the
Maronites. Thus at Urfa a Syrian church of modern
date has a long narrow platform at the east end with
' several altars,' and before each a step for the cele
brant. The Nestorian church at Kochanes has
' three tables or altars in the nave,' two of which are
called the * altar of prayers' and ' altar of the gospel '
respectively, besides a small stone altar at the east
end. It is open to question, however, whether any
but the last-named are really eucharistic altars. At
Aleppo the Maronite church is described as having
five altars2, and a throne against the east wall facing
west, according to the proper arrangement.

Quite enough then has been here written to show
the fallacy of Neale's generalization to the effect that
' throughout the whole East one church contains but
one altar3.' Neale is very positive about the matter,
and adds * nor is this peculiar to the church of Con
stantinople : the rule is also observed in Ethiopia,
Egypt, Syria, Malabar, by Nestorians and Jacobites,
in short over the whole East : ' though with curious

1 Christians under the Crescent in Asia, by Rev. E. L. Cutts;
London S. P. C. K. (n. d.), p. 83.

2 Id. ib. pp. 84, 217, 48. The author is not very clear in his
evidence on the subject.

3 History of the Holy Eastern Church, Gen. Introd. vol. i. p. 182,

CH. i.] The Altar. 25

inconsistency he admits, almost in the next sentence,
that examples of churches with several altars are not
wanting from the earliest times. However the ques
tion is one of rule, to be settled by rule. And, so
regarding it, one need only remark that the law of
three altars is not merely universal in Egypt at the
present time, but there is not a single religious build
ing of the Copts, however ancient its foundation,
which does not bear the clearest structural proofs of
having been designed with a view to precisely the
same ritual arrangement. And though there is no
express evidence for Abyssinia, yet considering the
historical and actual dependence of the Church of
Ethiopia on that of Alexandria, one can scarcely
question that the same rule holds good there also.
The practice in Armenia is clear in upholding the
same custom : and if the practice in the Syrian and
Nestorian Churches is not quite clearly established
as identical with that of the Egyptian, Ethiopian
and Armenian, yet obviously the truth lies rather in
the complete reversal of Neale's canon, and must
rather be expressed by saying that nowhere in the
whole East does a single church contain only a single
altar, with the exception of buildings belonging to
the see of Constantinople. The Greek Church re
cognises one altar : all other Churches recognise a
plurality of altars.

PORTABLE ALTARS *.

The Coptic clergy rarely make use of portable
altars, not from any canonical objection to them, but

1 Renaudot is quite wrong in his remarks about the Coptic
altar. He says (Lit. Or. torn. i. p. 164) :' consuetude a multis seculis

26 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.

merely because the necessity for their employment
seldom arises. Both in the capital and in most other
towns of Egypt churches are thickly scattered, and
the Christians have a way of clinging round them.
Being thus always within easy reach of a church,
those who are hale can resort to the celebration,
while the sick receive a portion of the korban which
is carried from the church by a priest. The rule
of to-day is that the korban must always be conse
crated within the sacred building ; although in places
where there happens to be no church, in case of
emergency the priest is allowed to consecrate as he
judges necessary. I have found but one notice of
such an altar in Coptic history. When Zacharias,
king of Nubia, about 850 A.D. sent his son and heir
George to Egypt to settle a question of tribute
money, the royal envoy paid a visit to the patriarch

invaluit ut tabulas solas sive mensas haberent, quibus insternebatur
mappa benedictionibus episcopalibus consecrata, aut tabula ad ipsius
altaris longitudinem, aul tandem altaria ut apud nostros vocantur
portaiilia : laminae scilicet aut segmenta ex marmore quae facile
afferri et removed possint . . . . Ita non modo Graecorum sed etiam
Latinorum disciplinae de sacris altaribus convenire deprehenditur
Orientalis disciplina.' It is this perpetual assumption by analogy
\vhich vitiates so much of Renaudot's information. ' Graecae
Ecclesiae, cui aliae in Oriente similes sunt' (p. 166) is his maxim
in all cases of doubt. So he says that for the most part there is
but a single altar in one church, a conclusion reached as follows :
' Cum autem insignes olim ecclesiae multae in Aegypto essent,
jam omnino paucae supersunt, in quibus primaevae antiquitatis
obscura vestigia agnosci possint .... nihil ex antiquis Christianis
aedificiis residuum est unde conjectura de ecclesiarum aut al-
tarium forma capi queat; nihilque vero propius quam ut illorum
forma ex Graecarum (sic) lineamentis intelligatur ; eadem enim
erat utrarumque dispositio! The dangers of such a method are
obvious.

CH. i.] The Altar. 27

Joseph, then in the chair of St. Mark, to whom he
carried letters. Thence he proceeded to do homage
to the khalif at Bagdad ; and on his return to Cairo
'was granted as a very great privilege by the patriarch
a portable altar of wood to carry to his father. Tra
dition says that such a thing was never known before ;
and the concession was only justified by the peculiar
circumstances of the Nubians, who were restless
nomads and dwellers in tents, and whose life was all
fighting and foray1. It is quite likely that this altar
was a board from one of the churches : indeed the
Copts of to-day allege that the portable altar used
in cases of extreme necessity is nothing else than
the wooden slab, which must therefore be conse
crated with chrism. Moreover the entire disappear
ance of the altar-board from some of the minor chapels
in Cairo may well point to the fact that the board
was carried outside the building, and used as an altar.
It is curious to remark that the Nestorian canons,
while not apparently sanctioning the use of portable
altars, yet in cases of urgent need allow the eucharist
to be consecrated over the hands of a deacon, pro
vided express permission be first obtained from a
bishop2. The Syrians use consecrated slabs of wood,
like the Coptic : or where neither an altar nor a con
secrated slab is at hand, they allow the eucharist to
be celebrated on a leaf of the gospel3.

About the practice of the Greek Church there is
no such ambiguity. The consecration of portable
altars or antimensia, as they are called, was a regular

1 Renaudot, Hist. Pat. Alex. p. 282.

2 J. A. Asseman, De Cathol. seu Pat. Chald. et Nestor. Com,
p. 120.

3 Renaudot, Lit. Or. vol. ii. p. 46.

28 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.

part of the ritual for the dedication of a new altar.
The antimensia were laid on the altar ; and after
olvdv&r] or scented wine had been poured upon them,
and three crosses had been made upon each with
chrism, relics mixed with ceromastic to prevent the
loss of any of the holy fragments were brought forth,
anointed with chrism, and enclosed in a pocket behind
each tablet. The celebration of the eucharist com
pleted the form of consecration for the antimensia,
which then were ready for use. Their employment
was as common in the Greek as it was rare in the
Coptic Church.

Many examples might be quoted to prove the
custom of using portable altars in western Christen
dom. In England the practice prevailed from the
earliest times, every large church possessing one or
more tablets of wood or metal, which the priests
could carry when they wished to minister to sick
people, or to celebrate in remote places where there
was no consecrated building. Perhaps the most
ancient extant specimen of the kind is the portable
altar used by St. Cuthbert, which is now preserved,
though in a mutilated condition, in the cathedral
library at Durham. It is a small wooden tablet
covered with a leaden casing which seems to be of
later elate and bears some indecipherable Greek
characters.

THE FITTINGS OF THE ALTAR.

Over every high altar in the churches of Egypt,
and sometimes also over the side altars, rises or
rose a lofty canopy or baldacchino resting on four

CH. i.] The Altar. 29

columns. The canopy, which is always of wood
though sometimes upheld by stone pillars, is gene
rally painted in rich colours within and without,
and adorned with a picture of our Lord in the
centre of the dome and with flying angels and
emblematic figures. A full description of such a
canopy has been given in the chapter on the church
of Abu-'s-Sifain and need not here be repeated1 :
only it may be added that the domed canopy sym
bolises the highest heaven, where Christ sits throned
in glory surrounded by angels, and the four pillars
on which it is upheld typify either the four quarters
of the globe, according to Germanus, or else the four
evangelists, whose symbols are also sometimes
painted within the canopy. The Coptic baldakyn is
invariably in the form of a cupola, never having a
pointed roof with gables, as in the church of St.
Anastasius at Rome ; nor a flat roof, as in two
examples at St. Mark's, Venice ; nor a pyramidal
roof, as in a third example at St. Mark's, also in the
church of Sta. Potenziana near Narni, and that of
Spirito Santo at Ravenna 2. Yet it is curious that in all
cases where a canopy is now standing, the columns
which support it have, if I remember rightly, Sara
cenic capitals. This is natural enough at Abu-'s-
Sifain, which was built in Arab times, but more
surprising at Abu Sargah, where the columns of
the nave are Greek or Roman. In some cases

1 The description (vol. i. p. 114) may be compared with that of
the ciborium over the altar of St. Gregory built by Gebehard, bishop
of Constance. M. de Fleury, in giving a cut of the ceiling which
shows the figures of the four evangelists, conjecturally inserts their
symbols. La Messe, vol. ii. p. 26.

2 La Messe, vol. ii. pi. ciii, civ, cix, xcvii.

30 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.

the columns have disappeared altogether, and the
canopy rests on cross-beams driven into the walls.
No doubt the true explanation is, that in the ancient
churches the altar with its canopy received a more
rich and sumptuous adornment than any other part
of the church, and therefore specially attracted the
malice of Muslim fanatics engaged in plunder or
destruction of the Christian edifices. It seems how
ever very possible that in some cases, where a full
dome roofed the sanctuary and overshadowed the
altar, a separate baldakyn on pillars was dispensed
with, in later times at any rate, after the disuse of
hangings. Certainly it would be quite wrong to
infer that the altar-canopy was a mediaeval innova
tion among the Copts : for it is one of the earliest
traditions of primitive church decoration.

Between the four columns of the canopy run four
slender rods or beams, which should be painted with
texts in Coptic as at Abu Sargah. These beams
were meant originally to hang the altar-curtains upon.
For in ancient times the altar was veiled with hang
ings : and though there is no instance of such curtains
remaining in an Egyptian church, yet both the beams
themselves, and the rings with which they are some
times (as at Abu-'s-Sifain) still fitted, prove that even
in the middle ages the practice of surrounding the
altar with hangings was not disused ; while the
seventh or eighth century panel at Abu Sargah, in
which they are figured, furnishes a good example of
earlier usage. At Abu Sargah two of the columns
stand at a distance of 2 ft. 9 in., two at 3 ft. 3^ in., from
the nearest corner of the altar ; so that there remained
quite room enough for the celebrant to move round
the altar inside the curtains. At Abu-'s-Sifain the

CH. I.]

The Altar.

shortest distance is 2 ft, which leaves rather a narrow
space for movement. No doubt the altar-curtains
were richly embroidered with texts and figures in

SCALE OF FEET

\ *

Fig. 5.— Silk curtain, with massive silver embroidery, before the haikal door at
Al Mu'allakah.

needlework, or in tissue of gold and silver. To this
day a curtain always hangs before the door of the haikal
embroidered either with a red cross or with figures.

32 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.

In his description of the great church of St. Sophia,
Paul the Silentiary relates that over the high altar on
four columns of silver gilt, which were spanned by
arches, rose a lofty ' tower' or canopy, the lower part
of which was octagonal-, while above it tapered off in
a cone. On the top of the cone was set a golden orb
and on the orb stood a cross of gold encrusted with
jewels. Between the silver pillars costly hangings
were spread ; and on the curtain before the altar there
was wrought in glorious embroidery of gold the figure
of Christ in the attitude of benediction and holding a
book of the gospels in his left hand. This descrip
tion is sufficient to prove the early practice of the
Greek Church: but Goar also mentions1 the altar-
canopy as symbolical of heaven, and in the same
place speaks of a curtain before the altar embroidered
with a figure of our Lord. These hangings too are
found depicted in early monuments : thus in the
splendid mosaics that adorn the dome of St. George's
church at Salonica (now used as a mosque) may be
seen a fine representation of an altar shrouded in
curtains and covered with a canopy. The work dates
from about 500 A.D. A silver canopy, too, dating
from the early fifth century, stood over the altar at
the neighbouring church of St. Demetrius. At the
present day such curtain? are not used in the
Greek any more than in the Coptic ritual. Their
chief purpose, besides giving an air of mystic sanctity
to the precincts of the altar, was to veil the celebrant
at the moment of consecration. Accordingly they
were always drawn close during the recitation of the
canon. Their disuse is probably due to the fact that
the iconostasis formed an effectual screen in itself;

1 Euchologion, p. 15.

CH. i.] The Altar. 33

and if there were no express testimony to the contrary,
it would be natural to conclude that the iconostasis
is a more "mediaeval arrangement, the adoption of
which did away with the necessity for altar-curtains.
At St. Sophia, however, Paul the Silentiary tells us
there was before the sanctuary a screen with three
doors, and on it were blazoned figures of angels and
prophets, while over the central door was wrought
the cypher of Justinian and Theodora. There was
in fact even at that early date, coexisting with the
magnificent curtains, a true iconostasis. Neither the
Armenian nor the Nestorian churches have any
screen before the high altar other than a curtain,
which is drawn across the whole chancel, and seems
to serve not merely as a screen but also as the
Lenten veil.

In the western Church, wherever the basilican
type of building prevailed, the altar was overshadowed
by a domed canopy and veiled with curtains, as for
instance in the old basilica of St. Peter and that of
St. Paul without the Walls at Rome. The baldakyn
at St. Peter's, presented by Gregory the Great, was
of silver ; so too was that given by Honorius I. to the
church of St. Pancratius. Rock x makes mention of
curtains hung at the north and south sides of the
altar to keep the wind off the candles : but this was
only a remnant of the earlier arrangement, which was
designed above all to screen the celebrant at the
moment of office. Indeed the essential part of the
baldacchino was the curtains, as the very name
proves, being derived from Baldacco the Italian for
Bagdad, as damask from Damascus, fustian from
Fustat, the ancient Arab name of Old Cairo. Baldac-

1 Church of our Fathers, vol. i. p. 230.

VOL. II. D

34 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.

chino, then, means properly a costly tissue woven in
the looms of Bagdad : in its anglicised form ' balda-
kyn' it is not uncommon in our ancient church
records : but the name passed by an easy transition
from the hangings to the canopy above the altar.
The baldacchino was a common feature in our early
Anglo-Saxon churches. A very clear and fine
representation of an altar-curtain may be seen, for
example, in the South Kensington Museum on an
ivory tablet of Anglo-Saxon workmanship. The
subject is the Adoration of the Magi : the figures
are grouped under an arch, above which and in the
spandrels the structure of the temple is pourtrayed :
all round the arch runs a rod, on which hang curtains
looped and falling in folds. This tablet has some
curious points of resemblance with the carved panel
at Abu Sargah. A similar arrangement is shown in
an engraving figured in Rock1, and taken from an
illumination in Godemann's Benedictional. More
over the Ecgbert Pontifical orders the curtain to be
drawn across between clergy and people at the con
secration of an altar 2. There was no elevation of the
host before the congregation in the Saxon ritual, a
fact which Mr. G. Gilbert Scott connects, no doubt
rightly, with the use of altar-curtains. One may push
the argument a step farther, and suppose that the
disuse of altar-curtains in the eastern as well as the
western churches was hastened, as the practice of
elevating the host won its way into predominance.
This practice was unknown in the West before the
end of the eleventh century, and was not received in
England till the thirteenth century3, though it very

1 Vol. i. p. 194. 2 P. 45-

:1 Rock, vol. iv. p. 155.

CH. i.j The Altar. 35

probably originated in the East much earlier. Yet
it was about the end of the eleventh century, namely
in the time of St. Osmund, who was bishop of Sarum
and Chancellor of England 1078 A.D., that the use of
the canopy was discontinued in this country. In
many cases however the two eastward columns and
the beam joining them were left standing *, and on
this beam was set a crucifix together with a vessel of
holy water, a box with singing-breads, wine, and the
like. The curtains which were hung north and south
of mediaeval altars have been mentioned : they were
suspended on rods driven into the wall and called
' riddles.' Another trace of the old usage was pre
served in the Lenten veil, which shrouded the altar
from the eve of the first Sunday in Lent till Maundy
Thursday during the mass, and was withdrawn only
at the reading of the gospel. In some churches,
where the chancel-arch was narrow, the Lenten veil
hung across the entire width : in cathedrals it hung
between the choir and the presbytery. It was made
of white linen, or sometimes of silk, and was marked
with a red cross.

COVERINGS OF THE ALTAR.

The ordinary covering of a Coptic altar (sitr) is
a tightly-fitting case of silk or cotton, sometimes
dyed a dim colour or brocaded with small patterns
of flowers in needlework or silver. This reaches
to the ground, entirely concealing the fabric of the
altar. More splendid stuffs are used for great

1 Rock, vol. iv. p. 208.
D 2

36 Ancient Coptic Chitrches.

festivals, and even in common use an outer cover
ing is sometimes put over the first1. The only
other form of altar-vestment that I have seen is
a sort of frontal, about i8in. square, hanging on
the western side ; this is of costly material, and
richly embroidered with a cross in the centre and
figures in the corners. But even the most intel
ligent of the Copts seem to have no information
concerning its usage.

In our early English churches there were three
principal coverings : — the cerecloth, fitting tightly
like the Coptic vestment and removed but once a
year, on Maundy Thursday, for the washing of the
altar ; then a white linen cloth the size of the slab,
not falling over the sides, but having a super-frontal
attached ; and thirdly, a cloth of fine linen covering
the top and hanging over the north and south sides ;
upon this were embroidered five crosses.

The Greek vestments were also principally three,
called the TT/OO? a-dpKa or cerecloth, the trrtvSva-Ls or
overall, and the d\7]Tw or corporal (?) : but under
neath all, at each corner of the altar, was hung a
narrow strip of embroidery worked with the figure
of an evangelist, and hence called evayye\icrT?fptov2.
The term evangelisterium is sometimes wrongly
used for the textus or book of the gospels.

1 There is no distinction of name between the coverings, which
are simply called ^o jJtl u'-Ja^.

2 Thiers, Les Principaux Autels des Eglises. ch. xxi. p. 154.

CHAPTER II.
Eucharistic Vessels and Altar Furnititre.

Chalice. — Paten. — Dome. — Spoon. — Ark. — Veils. — Fan. — Ewer and
Basin. — Pyx. — Creivet.—Chrismatory. — Altar-candlesticks. — Textus.
— Gospel-stand. — Thurible.— Bridal Crown.

the celebration of the eucharist the Copts
use five instruments — chalice*, paten, dome,
spoon, and ark. None of the extant chalices
that I have seen are very ancient or interesting.
They are usually of silver, though the church
of Al Amir Tadrus had one of plain white
Venetian glass gilded. As a rule the bowl is small
and nearly straight-sided ; the stem long and ending
downwards in a round knop, below which the base
slopes away rather abruptly, but the foot is relieved
with plain mouldings and is always circular. The
shape thus differs from that of the English chalice
in two chief particulars : the bowl, in being more
conical and less hemispherical, more nearly resembles
that of the Elizabethan communion-cup ; and the
knop is below the stem instead of dividing it in
the middle, and is less prominent. Moreover, in
England the base of the chalice was changed from
circular to hexagonal after the fourteenth century,

1 Arabic ^tfJl, Coptic m TTOTHpIort.

38 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.H.

owing to a rubric which ordered the chalice to be
laid on its side to drain after the celebration : and
the hexagonal base obviated the danger of rolling.
But a chalice with an angular foot is never found
in the churches of Egypt. The Nestorians some
times use for a chalice a plain bowl of silver.

Glass chalices only came into use when the more
precious vessels had been plundered or destroyed
by the Muslims. Thus it is recorded that about
the year 700 A. D. so great a spoliation of the
churches took place, that glass chalices and wooden
patens were substituted for the lost vessels of silver
and gold1. As regards western practice, Durandus
says that Zephyrinus in the early third century
enjoined the use of glass chalices, but pope Urban
prescribed metal. About the same time, 226 A.D.,
the Council of Rheims forbade the use of glass. In
England horn and wood were forbidden materials
on account of their absorbent qualities. The canons
of Aelfric mention gold, silver, glass, and tin as per
missible : and glass chalices were used in the very
early Irish Church, though afterwards disallowed2.
In the thirteenth century tin was forbidden by the
Constitutions of Archbishop Wethershed3. But in
eastern and western ritual alike gold or silver
seems to have been the normal metal for the
chalice. Renaudot relates that about the year 1210
the khalif Malik Al 'Adal, hearing that there were
great treasures buried in a well at Dair Macarius
in the Natrun desert, sent and discovered, among
other things, a silver chalice and paten, which were

1 Renaudot, Hist. Pat. Alex. p. 193.

3 Warren's Lit. and Rit. of the Celtic Church, p. 143.

3 Archaeological Journal, vol. iii. p. 133.

CH. H.] Eucharistic Vessels. 39

carried off, besides a silk embroidered curtain for
the haikal-door valued at 3000 gold pieces. The
story adds that when the Copts pleaded, and proved
from the inscriptions and the Book of Benefactions,
that the vessels and the hanging were special offer
ings made to the church, the khalif generously
restored them, and they were carried in chests on
camels to Old Cairo surrounded by companies of
men singing and bearing lighted tapers. Forty
years later, when Al Mu'allakah was spoiled, a fine
chalice of ancient workmanship was found buried
under one of the altars, i. e. doubtless hidden away
in the sepulcrum. I have not seen any cross or
engraving of the crucifixion upon the foot of a
Coptic chalice, such as was usual in western
mediaeval chalices, though not in those of a more
primitive epoch. The donative inscription is gene
rally round the base.

Patens^ are, as a rule, plain, flat, circular dishes,
with a vertical raised border round. They have
not any depression in the middle, nor any engraved
figure of the Veronica, like our fourteenth and
fifteenth-century patens ; nor have they any stem
or foot like those of the Elizabethan and later
periods. In fact both chalice and paten correspond
in their simplicity of design, if not altogether in
shape, more closely with the earliest extant speci
mens of the like vessels in western Christendom.

The dome2, or kubbah as it is called in Arabic,
consists of two half-hoops of silver crossed at right
angles and ri vetted together. At the celebration of
mass the dome is set over the consecrated bread

Arabic *-~~A Coptic *f ^X

40 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. n.

in the midst of the paten, and the corporal which
covers the dome is thus held clear above the housel.
The Greek Church makes use of a corresponding
instrument termed the * star,' do-repio-Kos or acm/p,
said to have been introduced by St. Chrysostom.
The name 'star' is given from the shape of the
instrument perhaps ; but when it is placed over the
host, the priest recites the words, * And there came
a star and stood over where the young child was1.'

The spoon'2' is employed for administering the
Coptic communion ; for the custom is to put the
wafer into the wine, and to administer both kinds
together. The bowl of the spoon is hemispherical,
the handle consists of a straight even strip of metal,
on which is usually graven a dedicatory inscription.
In the Armenian ritual a spoon is used some
times, though very rarely3. The Greek custom
as regards the administration is precisely similar to
the Coptic. A spoon (A«£is) is used to take out
of the wine the crumbs of bread, or * pearls' as
they are called, which are given to laymen. Eccle
siastics, however, and the czar at his coronation,
receive the two kinds separately. In England the
mention of sacred spoons is common in church in
ventories ; thus among the ornaments of Richard
II.'s chapel at Windsor in 1384 are mentioned a
golden chalice, paten, and spoon. But these spoons
were used rather for mixing water with the wine,

1 Renaudot in his Liturgiarum Orientalium Collectio (vol. ii. p.
60, 2nd ed., Frankfort, 1847) savs that tne Orientals, including the
Syrians and Egyptians, do not use the Aster. As regards the
Egyptians, of course, he is wrong.

Arabic «JL*IXI, Coptic *f KOKXl^pIOIt, *f JULTCTHp,

Fortescue's Armenian Church, pp. 177, 180.

CRAMENTAL SPOON V/ITH
DEDICATORY INSCRIPTION IN
ARABIC. OF BASE SILVER.

CLASS LAMP OF

ARAB FORM
CH OF ABU SARGAH

TEXTUS-STAND
SHUT UP

CHURCH OF AMIR-TADRUS - OLD CAIRO

SIZE ABOUT
29X22"

WOODEN TEXTUS STAND WITH PRICKETS FOR CANDLES

< 8'Yz >

WOODEN CHRISMATORY WITH REV OLV I NC LID
CHURCH OF ANBA SHANUDAH OLD CAIRO

6"- - 8"

F'ig. 6 — Various pieces of Church Furniture.

42 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. u.

or as strainers to remove flies and the like from
the chalice ; while the analogue of the eastern
spoon in the early Latin Church was the tube or
pipe, such as is recorded in an inventory of vessels
given to Exeter church c. 1046. The use of the
tube, which lingered on at St. Denis, Cluny, and
other monasteries, now survives only with the
pope l.

Besides the above vessels every Coptic altar is
furnished with a wooden ark or tabernacle2, differ
ing both in structure and in purpose from those of
the Latin Church. With us the tabernacle was
used to guard the housel, which was commonly en
closed in a pyx within it. The tabernacle was very
often made in the form of a tower, and wrought of
precious metals adorned with jewels. But in Egypt
the practice of reserving the host, which once pre
vailed, has long been discontinued, owing chiefly,
no doubt, to the compactness of the Coptic com
munities, which made it easy to find a priest at
hand to consecrate in case of sickness. There is,
however, a lurid legend which accounts for the
discontinuance of the practice by relating that the
housel was once found to have been devoured by
a serpent in the night. The Coptic tabernacle is a
regular instrument in the service of the mass, and
at other times lies idle upon the altar. It consists
of a cubical box, eight or nine inches high ; the top
side of which is pierced with a circular opening just
large enough to admit the chalice. At the conse
cration the chalice is placed within the tabernacle,

1 Vide Journal of Archaeology, vol. iii. p. 132.

2 Called in Arabic ^ISJI ^^ or simply ^-^Jl, i. e. ' the
chalice-stand ' or ' the stand :' in Coptic TTJTOTTe.

CH. ii.j Eucharistic Vessels. 43

and the rim when it is thus enclosed is about flush
with the top, so that the paten rests as much on
the tabernacle as on the chalice. The four walls
of the tabernacle are covered with sacred paint
ings, — our Lord and St. John being the most fre
quent figures. Most of the tabernacles now in use
are modern and artistically worthless, but one beau
tiful ancient specimen I discovered at Abu-'s-Sifain,
and of this a full description is given in another
place 1.

There can, I think, be no doubt that this taber
nacle or altar-casket of the Copts is the mysterious
'area' which has puzzled liturgical writers from Re-
naudot to Cheetham2. Renaudot quotes a prayer
preceding the Ethiopic canon entitled ' Super arcam
sive discum majorem,' and thinks that the ark was
a sort of antimensium. But the title is at once
explained if we remember the Coptic practice of
placing the chalice inside and the paten on the
box, — a practice from which the Ethiopic was doubt
less derived. The very words of the prayer, taken
in connexion with the Coptic custom, really set the
vexed question at rest. They follow the dedica
tion of chalice, paten, and spoon ; and are, as ren
dered by Neale3: 'O Lord our God, who didst
command Moses thy servant and prophet, saying,
Make me precious vessels and put them in the taber
nacle on Mount Sinai, now, O Lord God Almighty,
stretch forth thy hand upon this ark, and fill it with
the virtue, power, and grace of thy Holy Ghost, that
in it may be consecrated the Body and Blood of Thine

1 Vol. i. pp. 109, no. 2 Diet. Christ. Ant. s. v.

3 Eastern Church, Gen. Introd. vol. i. p. 186.

44 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. n.

only begotten Son our Lord/ Neale himself comes
to the conclusion that this ark is ' simply used for
the reservation of the blessed sacrament;' but the
words of the prayer which I have just cited, — (the
italics are mine,) — leave no doubt whatever that
the ark at its dedication is intended not for the
reservation but for the consecration of the host;
and even if this deduction were doubtful, it is ren
dered absolutely certain by the analogy of Coptic
usage, of which both Renaudot and Neale are quite
ignorant. It may be true, as Neale alleges, that in
the Ethiopian Church the host actually is some
times reserved in the ark ; but that is an accident,
and a perversion of the original intention.

The Copts have no instrument corresponding to
the holy lance of Greek ritual for the fraction or
division of the wafer.

A special appurtenance of the Coptic liturgical
worship is the little mat or 'plate'1 as they call it,
numbers of which are used in the celebration of the
korban. They are circular in form, five or six
inches in diameter, and made of silk, strengthened at
the back with some coarser material. Each mat
has a cross embroidered or woven upon it : and
sometimes, as in the woodcut, smaller crosses are
set between the branches. The mat here given is
of cloth of gold with designs embroidered in thread
of silver gilt, — an ancient example from the church of
Abu Kir wa Yuhanna at Old Cairo. Red, pink and
green are equally common hues, there being no re
gulation as to colour. The manner in which these

or *^*-ft ; in Coptic TIIOOJUL : it seems to correspond
with the 'minus velum' mentioned by Renaudot, Lit. Or. torn. i.
p. 304.

CH. II.]

Eueharistic Vessels.

mats are used at the mass will be explained in
another chapter.

Before the commencement of the mass the sacred
elements are covered with a veil or corporal called
sJUJJl in Arabic, and ni upoc^pm1 in Coptic. The
veil is of white or coloured silk, generally about 18 in.
square ; the middle is embroidered with a cross ;

fi 1

Fig. 7. — The Hasirah or Eucharistic Mat.

and tiny bells are sometimes attached to the centre
and the corners. This lafafah seems to answer to the

1 Renaudot (I.e.) remarks that this, the 'velum majus,' is called
anaphora — ' praecipue in Syriacis Ritualibus.' Nauphir'vs> no doubt
the term used by the Syrians, but the Coptic name is that given in
the text.

46 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. n.

ia of Greek ritual, while the hasirah or
tabak corresponds in some mea mre to the Greek
chalice veil. But the Copts employ only these two
eucharistic veils, and have nothing analogous to the
Greek ar]p or ^e^eA??.

The use of the fan1 or flabellum no doubt origin
ated in the sultry East, where being almost a neces
sity of daily life, it passed very early into the service
of the Church. Its employment in Coptic worship
dates from a great antiquity.

In the Liturgy of St. Clement, translated from the
Apostolical Constitutions, a rubric runs thus : ' Two
' deacons on each side of the altar hold a fan made
'of thin vellum, fine linen, or peacocks' feathers, to
* drive away flies or gnats, lest they fall into the
k chalice.' Costly fans are mentioned in the year
A. D. 6242. These doubtless, as was usual later, were
made of metal, either gold or silver. A common
type is that given in the illustration, a disk of silver
fitted with a silver socket, into which is fastened a
short wooden handle. The disk is surrounded and
divided across by dotted bands, and upon it are
worked two rude figures of the seraphim. The whole
of the design is repousse. At the church of Al Amir
Tadrus there were four of these flabella : but their
purpose is so far forgotten, that they are only used
as ornaments upon the occasion of the silver textus-
case being set in the choir. The textus-case then is
placed upright upon a sort of stand, which has at
each corner a short pricket to receive the wooden

2 Gregory the Great's Liber Sacramentorum, ed. H. Menardus,
Paris, 1642, p. 319, where several authorities are cited.

Fig. 8. — Flabellum in repousse silver.

48 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. n.

•

handle of the flabellum1. A taper is further stuck
or crushed upon the upper part of the disk and
lighted ; so that the fan seems to serve only as an
elaborate candlestick. It may well be, however, that
this usage betrays a consciousness of some such
mystic symbolism as undoubtedly is attached to the
fan in the Greek ritual. At Abu Sargah, where the
ritual, or at least the worship, has suffered less decay
than at the deserted Tadrus, similar silver fans exist,
and are, I believe, used at solemn festivals, if not in
the regular celebration of the mass. Upon the altar
at Anba Shanudah I found a rude axe-shaped fan of
woven rushes, such as the Arabs wave to cool their
faces ; and the fact that this fan is still employed,
either regularly or in the hot season, for the service
of the altar, proves that the right use of the flabellum
is not entirely forgotten.

In the office for the ordination of the patriarch of
Alexandria, the rubric speaks of a procession through
the church with crosses, gospels, tapers, and fans or
figures of the cherubim. Flabella were waved by
the deacons in the Syrian Jacobite, and probably
also in the Coptic rite for the ordination of a priest
at the laying on of hands. In the ritual of the Mel-
kite Egyptians to-day a metal flabellum is sometimes
used : thus at the ancient church of St. George on
the tower at Old Cairo two fans stand upon the
altar. More often, however, they use a fine linen
cloth or corporal, such as is employed also for the
same purpose in the service of the altar at the Coptic
monasteries in the desert, and is called al lafafah. Yet,
even where a veil or corporal is used to fan the sacred
elements, the original metal flabellum survives still as

1 See illustration, page 41 supra.

CH. II.]

Eucharistic Vessels.

J1.J.B

Fig. 9.— Processional Flabellum of silver-gilt
used by the Melkite Church of Alexandria.

VOL. II.

a processional ornament
among the Melkites, as
will be seen from the illus
tration.

We constantly read of
fans carried in procession
in the Coptic ritual, as well
as in the Armenian. In
both cases there was prob
ably a special form of the
instrument for processions
corresponding to the Mel-
kite flabellum : but this
form has long since disap
peared among the Copts.

In the Greek Church the
fan, or />W&oi>, seems to
have departed altogether
from its original purpose,
and to have a ceremonial
rather than a practical
value. The one given in
Gear's illustration is made
of wood, and consists of a
small carved image of the
seraphim mounted on a
short handle, — an instru
ment which could be of
little service in driving
away gnats and flies. It
is just after the pax and
hymn of victory, and again
just before the diptychs in
the Greek rite, that the
fan is employed ; and on

50 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.H.

both occasions the deacon solemnly fans the elements,
signifying a wafting of divine influence upon them.
Moreover, on Good Friday, at the consecration of
the chrism, when the box with the holy oil is carried
in procession, seven deacons move on each side of it,
every one holding a fan above it. In the absence of
a proper flabellum, the Greek rubric sanctions the
use of a napkin or corporal to fan the oflete.

That the same usage existed among the Copts is
clear from a MS. in the Vatican1, which describes
the procession for the consecration of the chrism as
consisting of twelve subdeacons carrying lamps,
twelve deacons carrying fans, twelve priests carrying
thuribles, and the bishop with the vessel of oil covered
by a white pall which is borne by deacons ; and round
the bishop a throng of clergy moves, all carrying in
their hands 'cherubim,' i.e. fans, and crosses. The
word employed in the Coptic rubric seems to be
pirucTHplon, a mere transliteration of a form still
found in the Greek.

The Maronite and the Armenian Churches both
employ a metal flabellum — silver or brass — having a
circular disk surrounded with a number of little bells.
These bells are no doubt meant to call attention to
the special part of the office which is being performed :
and I may repeat that they are occasionally fastened
in the same manner on a Coptic corporal, stole, or
dalmatic.

A full and interesting account of the Armenian
use of the flabellum is given in the Rev. S. C. Malan's
introduction to his translation of the Divine Liturgy

1 Ordo consecrationis chrismatis et olei catechumenorum, ex
cod. Vat. 44, ed. Tukio, quoted by Denzinger, Ritus Orientalium,
torn. i. p. 251,

CH. ii.] Eucharistic Vessels. 51

of St. Gregory the Illuminator. We read there that
' the bishop before celebrating goes round the church
preceded and accompanied by clergy having fans and
banners, holding in his hand the cross, with which he
blesses at the end of every prayer said aloud up to
the Song of the Cherubim.' Another passage speaks
of the waving of the fans at the trisagion as sym
bolical of the quivering wings of the seraphim : and
a Russian eyewitness of the ceremony mentions ' the
noise of silver fans' as being strange to him, but not
disagreeable. The noise of course arises from the
bells ; for the flabellum without bells is a familiar
instrument in Greek worship.

In Georgia the flabellum was used in early times,
as is proved by an ancient fresco at Nekresi, in
which two angels are shown beside the altar, each
holding a long-handled flabellum, the disk of which is
ornamented with a figure of the seraphim, but has no
bells.

The flabellum found its way at an early date into
the western churches1. Cardinal Bona quotes an
instance of its use in the sixth century. Two figures
which seem to be flabella are incised on an eighth-
century altar, which stood in the church of St. Peter
at Ferentillo2. In an inventory at St. Riquier near
Abbeville, 831 A. D., occurs a ' silver fan for chasing
flies from the sacrifice.' In 1250, at Amiens, is men
tioned a 'fan made of silk and gold': in 1253 the
Sainte Chapelle at Paris possessed * duo flabella,
vulgo nuncupata muscalia, ornata perlis': and 'esmou-

1 See paper in Archaeological Journal by the late Albert Way,
vol. v.

2 La Messe, vol. i. pi. Iviii, and p. 171.

E 2

52 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. n.

choires ' are given in an inventory of 1376. In the
Library at Rouen is an illuminated thirteenth-century
missal with two illustrations of a deacon waving a
flabellum over the celebrant at the altar.

Coming to our own country, a Salisbury inventory
of 1214 mentions two fans of vellum and some other
stuff, perhaps silk. In 1298 the chapel of St. Faith
in the Crypt of St. Paul's had a * muscatorium,' or
fly-whip of peacocks' feathers. About the year 1400
one John Newton gave to York minster a silver-gilt
handle for a flabellum : and even in remote parishes
the use of peacocks' feathers was not uncommon.
Thus in the churchwardens' accounts at Walkerwick,
in Suffolk, there is an entry of ' ivd. for a bessume
of pekok's fethers.'

From the connection of the Irish Church with the
East, it is not surprising to find evidence for the use
of the fan as early as the sixth century in the sister
island. The Book of Kells has an illumination
representing angels holding flabella, which closely
resemble those of the Maronites : in the Gospels
of Treves l the curious figure of the conjoined
evangelistic symbols holds a flabellum in one
hand and a eucharistic knife or lance in the other.
This figure belongs to the eighth century : and in
another Hiberno-Saxon MS. of the eighth century
St. Matthew is figured holding in his hand a fla
bellum2.

In the western Church, according to Rock3, the
flabellum was used after the consecration and before

1 Westwood, Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and
Irish MSS., pi. xx.

2 Warren's Lit. and Rit. of the Celtic Church, p. 144,

3 Vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 194.

CH. ii.] Eucharistic Vessels. 53

the pax. The consciousness of its symbolical value
was rare and late in growth ; and the idea, where
existent, differs from the Greek idea of wafting
divine influence, being rather that of driving away
light and wandering imaginations. By the sixteenth
century the fan seems to have fallen into disuse
entirely ; for in the ' Missae Episcopales,' drawn up
for general guidance by order of the Council of Trent,
and published at Venice in 1567, no mention is made
of any such instrument. At the present day the sole
reminiscence in the West of the liturgical flabellum
is furnished by the large fans of peacocks' feathers
sometimes carried in procession before the pope1. But
in the Greek Church the fan is still delivered to the
deacon at ordination as the symbol of his office.

The ewer and basin for the washing of hands at
the mass are part of the complete furniture of a
Coptic altar, and in ancient times were doubtless
made of precious metals. At the present time how
ever a common pitcher of clay and tin bowl serve
the purpose in most cases. At Abu-'s-Sifain there
is a bronze basin of Arab work with some medal
lions or bosses upon it of fine enamel. The ewer of
the same kind belonging to the basin seems to have
disappeared within the last five or six years. The
basin generally rests upon a low wooden stand at
the north side of the altar. At the cathedral in
Cairo there is a ewer of silver, which I have seen
used in a curious manner. After the celebration of
the korban an acolyte pours water from the ewer
over the hands of the priest, who sprinkles first the
haikal, then other priests or attendants, then mounts

1 Diet. Christ. Antiq. s. v. Flabellum.

54 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. n.

a bench outside and scatters drops of water over the
congregation, who crowd round with upturned faces
eager to catch the spray. This is a near approach
to the use of holy water. In the Latin church the
basin was called aquamanile, and was delivered as
an. emblem of office to the deacon at ordination, just
as the ewer or urceolus was delivered to the acolyte.
Thus in St. Osmund's Consuetudinary a an acolyte
after the entrance of the mass is ordered to bring
( pelves cum manutergio.' Rock, however, says that
the. deacon at ordination received ewer, basin, and
towel2, remarking that the vessels were of precious
metal. The Greek vessel corresponding to the aqua
manile is called x^Pvi^ov-

Receptacles for the reserved host in the Coptic
churches must have been common when the practice
of reservation prevailed; but as on the whole the
canons discountenanced reservation, so naturally the
evidence for the use of vessels like the pyx is
very scanty. Renaudot in relating a legend about
Philotheus, LXIII patriarch of Alexandria, mentions
incidentally an 4 arcus seu ciborium quod altari im-
minebat.' The same writer alleges, however, that
although reservation was permitted in case of great
necessity, the host was ordered to remain on the
altar with lamps burning near it, and a priest watch
ing3. Still this arrangement would not preclude the
use of a separate vessel. Later, about the year 1000
A.D., a complaint was lodged against certain priests,
that they broke the canon in keeping the oflete a
whole week, lest they should weary themselves with

1 C. 93. 2 Vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 34 n.

3 Lit. Or. vol. i. p. 116.

CH. ii.] Euckaristic Vessels. 55

daily consecrations. Now the host is never reserved,
and no Coptic church I believe contains any sort of
pyx, unless it be possible that what I have called the
tabernacle or altar-casket may anciently have held
the reserved host, as among the Abyssinians. At
Abu Sargah, however, there is a very interesting
painting of St. Stephen, to be figured hereafter, in
which that saint is represented holding in his left
hand upon a corporal a beautifully jewelled vessel in
the form of a circular crown-like casket surmounted
by a cross. This may possibly represent a pyx, but
is more probably a box for incense. The painting
is by no means recent, and I have seen no other
like it, though it may be a copy of some traditional
design. It was not customary, as far as I can dis
cover, to suspend the reserved host over the altar at
any time, unless Renaudot's remark can be taken to
imply the custom ; nor had the Copts anything cor
responding to the eucharistic dove, which hung over
the altars of western Christendom.

Crewets of gold or silver were probably among
the appurtenances of an altar in olden times ; but
now nothing but the most commonplace vessels of
glass is to be found. But there is one singular
usage of the Copts, which has been already noticed.
In several of the churches, — Mari Mtna, for example,
— though not in all, a small glass crewet filled with
unconsecrated wine may be seen resting in a cuplike
wooden crewet-holder, which is nailed on to the
haikal-screen outside, and usually towards the north.
There is no such arrangement in the Cairo cathedral,
nor does the position of the crewet connect at all
with any point of the present ceremonial. One can
only surmise that it is the relic of some forgotten

56 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. n.

ritual practice. At Sitt Mariam Dair Abu-'s-Sifain
there are two such crewet-holders on the screen.

The use of crewets in the West — amae, amulae,
ampullae — dates from an early period. Two silver
crewets, 7 in. high, belonging to the fifth or sixth
century, are preserved in the Museo Cristiano at the
Vatican. John III., c. 560 A.D., is related to have
ordered crewets among other vessels for the shrines
of the martyrs in Rome. They are mentioned in
the Ordo Romanus : and Gregory the Great speaks
of crewets made of onyx, or perhaps glass resembling
onyx.

The word ampulla was used also to signify the
vessel used by the Latins for the holy chrism. No
such specific vessel remains among the Copts of
to-day ; who, while retaining the use of the chrism,
seem to have forgotten its former sanctity, and its
distinction from the other sacred oils. Yet the chrism
may be found here and there, lying about in a small
glass phial stuffed with a rag and thrust into a dusty
corner. Moreover the church of Anba Shanudah
contains an ancient chrismatory, a curious round
wooden box with a revolving lid. The box is solid
throughout, but has three holes scooped out inside,
in each of which is deposited a small phial of oil.
But even the priest does not now know that the
original purpose of the box was to hold the three
distinct kinds of oil used in the church ceremonial1.

In regard to altar-lights the most ancient custom
seems to have been to place a pair of candles close
against the altar, but not upon it. Evidence of this
still remains in the monastic churches of the desert,
in some of which the pair of stone candelabra, which

1 See illustration on p. 41 supra.

CH. ii.] . Eucharistic Vessels. 57

held the lights, still stand almost touching the altar
on the north and south side. But the prevailing
custom of the Copts at present is in harmony with
that of the western churches. Two candles and no
more are allowed upon the altar, though any number
of lamps or candles may be lighted round about it.
The candlesticks are often, especially in the side-
chapels, of wood with iron sockets somewhat resem
bling the ancient candlesticks in the hall of St. Cross
near Winchester ; and various designs in bronze are
common. Silver was once the usual material, and
silver candlesticks are still used at the cathedral.
It is curious to note that while only the two lights
are suffered to stand upon the altar, acolytes with
tapers in their hands move round it at the mass, and
sometimes hold their tapers over the altar. This
practice also had its counterpart in the Latin Church,
as recorded by Isidore of Seville1 in the seventh
century. Of the various lamps found in the churches
of Egypt an account is given elsewhere.

The crucifix is unknown to the altars or churches
of the Copts, though upon every altar is found lying
down (not set upright) a small hand-cross for cere
monial use. This cross, anciently of precious metal
and set with jewels, is now usually of base silver : it
has a peculiar design, to be given in a woodcut here
after. The only exception that I know to this form
of altar-cross occurs in the south chapel at Anba
Shanudah, which has a tiny cross of wood inlaid with
medallions of mother-of-pearl.

Among the altar-furniture of the Coptic churches
may be counted the book of the gospel, whose usual
resting-place is upon the altar at all times except at

1 Etym. vii. xii. 29.

58 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. n.

the reading of the gospel. This book consists of a
MS. enclosed in a wooden case, and covered all over
with plates of metal nailed tightly down. Thus the
writing is sealed against all opening. The outer case

,13.O

Fig. 10. — Textus case of silver-gilt.

is. generally of silver, though copper is found, and
embossed with Coptic lettering and designs of cheru
bim, flowers, and crosses. Some are of extreme
beauty, such as the fine large one belonging to Abu
Kir given in the engraving ; but the average size is

GH. II.]

Eucharistic Vessels.

much smaller, being about 7 in. by 4 in. The metal
cases were of course devised originally for security,
at a time when copies of Holy Writ were scarce, and
they must have been meant to open : then as copies
multiplied, the older and more precious MSS. were
sealed up entirely, and retained as venerable relics.
Yet as none of the existing cases date farther back
than the fifteenth century, it is doubtful whether
they still contain MSS. of any great antiquity or

AJ.B

Fig. 11. — Gospel-stands with prickets for candles.

value. One or two which have been opened revealed
nothing but a loose leaf or two of a gospel and some
fragments of silk tissue. But the meaning of the
cased textus is not forgotten ; for at the present day,
before the reading of the gospel at the mass, an
acolyte brings the silver book from the altar and
delivers it to the deacon, who places it reverently
upon the lectern : and when the gospel is finished,
the silver-book is carried back .again to the altar.
The same symbolical usage of the sealed textus is
found at baptisms and other ceremonies in which the

60 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. n.

curious gospel-stand is employed. The gospel-stand
is sometimes a mere board, square or octagonal,
sometimes a four-legged table, but fitted always with
a socket to receive the silver book which stands on
end in the centre. All round the gospel-stand iron
prickets are fastened, upon which burn lighted tapers:
and sometimes crosses of metal or wood are set at
the corners or even, as at Al Amir Tadrus, silver
fans. The silver-cased gospel is also frequently used
for the kiss of peace like the Latin pax ; and it is
carried in all solemn processions, with censers, tapers
and crosses — a custom to which allusion is made in
the time of Ephraim, c. 980 A.D., and again at the
institution of Macarius, about noo A.D.

The Armenian practice in this regard may be
noted among the many coincidences between Arme
nian and Coptic usage. For in the churches of the
Armenians the gospel is bound in silver and often
encrusted with jewels : it has also a silver case in
which it is kept, and it rests upon the altar. The
Nestorians also use a cover of some kind for the
gospel, though I cannot ascertain its exact nature :
it seems however more nearly akin to the Irish
cumhdach than to the sealed case of Coptic usage.
Allusion to it may be found in the rubric for the
ordination of a bishop, which directs the archdeacon
to open out the cover of the gospel above the back
and head of the bishop, and to lay the gospel on the
cover in such a way that the book may face him
who is to read out of it1.

That the sealed textus is exclusively Coptic seems
proved by the fact that it is not found among the

1 Denzinger, Ritus Orientalium, torn. ii. p. 271.

ii.] Eucharistic I/essels. 61

Melkite Egyptians belonging to the orthodox church
of Alexandria. For example, in the treasury of the
church of St. Nicholas in Cairo, while there is
nothing corresponding to the Coptic gospel-cover,
there are many books in the most sumptuous bind
ing, gospels and psalters and liturgies, bound in solid
plates of gold and silver, studded with gems, and
closed by jewelled clasps.

Though in our own Church the gospel was not
hermetically sealed, yet we read of a copy ' bound
up between thick sheets of solid gold and studded
with gems1.' Another, as quoted from Eddius in
the life of St. Wilfred, was likewise enclosed in plates
of chased gold and adorned with jewels. At Salis
bury in 1222, the cathedral had a textus bound in
solid gold with sixty-two precious stones : while
Canterbury cathedral possessed, in 1315, no less than
seven similar gold-cased books and many in silver.
Many too were at St. Paul's, St. Peter's in York,
Lincoln, and other places2. But the resemblance of
the Coptic to the ancient Irish practice seems closer
and more curious. As early as the sixth century in
Ireland, ' metal cases of embossed bronze or silver
(cumhdachs) for enclosing copies of the gospels or
other MSS.' were in common use3. Fine examples
are the Book of Armagh, the Psalter of St. Columba,
now in the Royal Irish Academy, the Book of Dimma
Mac Nathi, and the Miosach now at the college of
St. Columba, Rathfarnham 4. The Stowe missal has
a metal case of eleventh-century workmanship : so

1 Rock, vol. i. p. 272. 2 Id. ib. p. 297,

3 Warren's Lit. and Rit. of the Celtic Church, p. 21.

4 Westwood's Miniatures, &c., pp. 80, 82, 83, 84,

Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. a.

that the practice lasted for seve
ral centuries. It may be taken
as another point of correspond
ence between the Irish Church
and the East, in addition to
those adduced by Mr. Warren.

A silver box for incense is a
common belonging of the altar,
though none now seem left of
any great artistic interest. At
K. Burbarah there is a small
wooden incense-box with high-
relief carving of great merit.
Thuribles also or censers of
bronze or silver abound in all
the churches. Silver is the more
common metal, and some of the
silver censers are of very beau
tiful workmanship, resembling
those used in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries in the West.
Some indeed are of plain
bronze with a mouldedbase,and
a donative inscription round the
rim : but gold was a common
material in ancient times, and
now in most of the churches the
thuribles are of silver, decora ted
with open-work or repousse de
vices, and swung by chains with
or without little bells attached.
An example maybe seen figured
in the illustration of St. Stephen
in a later chapter.

Lastly may be mentioned as

Fig. 12.
Bridal Crown.

CH. ii.] Rucharistic Vessels. 63

a proper appurtenance of the altar the marriage-
diadem. This is a coronet of silver or gold, adorned
with texts, crosses, or other suitable ornamentation :
it is bound upon the brow of bride and bridegroom
alike at the wedding ceremonial in the church. The
example here figured is of silver-gilt with designs in
repousse : a cross in the centre : an Arabic text
signifying ' Glory to God in the highest' arranged
on either side : the whole between two double bands
of pellets. The ground is covered with fine tooling,
and a brief donative inscription is engraved at either
end by the rings.

The use of the crown, which at the outset was re
garded as a heathen ornament, dates notwithstanding
from so early an epoch, that it was sanctioned and
enjoined by the Church in the fourth century. In
Greek ritual, as in the Coptic, bride and bridegroom
are both crowned : the same custom holds with the
Armenians, who however use a wreath of flowers in
lieu of a metal diadem. In our own country there
is not much evidence for the crown as part of the
altar furniture. Rock mentions a wreath of jewels
called a 'paste' for brides to wear at the altar, and
quotes from some churchwardens' accounts ' paid for
a serclett to marry maidens in iii/.' in the year 1540.
A decree of the council of Exeter in 1287 ordered
that every church should possess a marriage-veil1.

Some Danish marriage-crowns are preserved in
the South Kensington Museum.

1 Church of our Fathers, vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 174.

CHAPTER III.

The Furnitiire and Ornaments of the
Sacred Building.

Ambons. — Lecterns. — Reliquaries. — Lamps and Lights. — Coronae.—
Ostrich Eggs.— Bells.— Musical Instruments.— Mitral Paintings-
Pictures.

OLYGONAL pulpits closely resembling
western models are neither of modern
date nor of rare occurrence in the Egypt
ian churches : but the Coptic ambon has
a distinct character of its own. It differs
from the western pulpit in having a straight-sided
balcony attached to the circular preaching place.
The balcony always runs east and west : both bal
cony and pulpit are usually of white marble, carved
with flowers or enriched with exquisite marqueterie
or mosaic of coloured stones. Sometimes a flight of
steps leads up to the ambon, yet often a moveable
ladder is the only means of mounting. It is doubtful
whether any remaining ambon dates further back
than the tenth century, though presumably those at
Al Mu'allakah and Abu-'s-Sifain, of which illustra
tions have been given, may claim as great antiquity.
It must always be remembered that the Arabs in
Egypt borrowed most of their arts from the Copts :
and that the arts, once developed, had a mechanical
persistence, which renders any argument from resem
blance of style to parity of date uncertain and

Furniture. 65

perilous. One cannot therefore safely determine
the date of Coptic work by comparison with like
Arab work of which the date is ascertained. But
there is an octagonal wooden pulpit in one of the
churches of the Natrun valley, which must be as old
as the eighth century.

In England pulpits were not used before the thir
teenth century, previous to which the sermon was
delivered from the roodloft : but in neither our own
Church nor the Coptic does the ambon seem to have
been known precisely in the form which was common
in early Greek buildings, and in early Latin basilicas,
—which occurred for instance at St. Sophia in Con
stantinople, and may still be seen at S. Apollinare
Nuovo in Ravenna, S. Clemente in Rome, and at
Torcello near Venice, — namely the form with two
low flights of steps, a double entrance, and two short
balconies without the circular area. This form is
the usual one in pourtrayals of the ambon in tenth
and eleventh century Italian miniatures. Whereas,
too, the Latin ambon generally stood in the middle
of the nave, the Coptic pulpit, like that of our own
churches, is placed on the north side of the nave
near the choir.

The lectern in use among the Copts is a moveable
wooden desk about 15 in. square and about 4ft. high,
furnished with a sloping book-rest. The lower part is
made as a cupboard to contain the books of service :
the upper half is sometimes open, showing only the
corner-posts. The lectern is adorned with geometri
cal designs, and sometimes inlaid with ivory carvings
of the richest and most intricate workmanship. The
finest example is that now at the cathedral in Cairo,
but once belonging to Al Mu'allakah : it may date

VOL. II. F

66 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

Fig. 13. — Ivory-inlaid Lectern at the Cathedral in Cairo (front view).

CH- ni-J Furniture.

Fig. 14.— Ivory-inlaid Lectern (back view).

F 2

68 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

perhaps from the tenth or eleventh century, and is a
really beautiful work of art, the ivory enrichments
being wrought with the utmost conceivable delicacy
of finish. The crosses and tablets chased with
Arabic inscriptions are solid blocks of ivory with
the designs in relief. The illustrations are from
photographs. The lectern always stands in the
choir before the haikal door, which was the position
occupied by the ambon at St. Sophia. Occasionally
two lecterns are found, but in such cases one belongs
of right to a side-chapel. The reader stands facing
the East with his back to the congregation.

Coverings of silk or some rich material are some
times used for the lectern. That at Anba Shanudah
covers the sloping desk, and reaches halfway down
the front or western side ; and the frontal is embroi
dered with a cross. An illuminated psalter is gen
erally left upon the lectern ; and under the desk, on
an open shelf or in the cupboard, are often kept
alms-trays of rushwork or of metal, and the musical
instruments used in divine service, i.e. cymbals,
triangles, and small tongueless bells struck with a
metal rod. Close beside the lectern there stands a
tall and highly ornamented bronze candelabrum with
a pricket, clearly recalling the graceful column which
stood beside the ambon in the Greek and Latin
churches, and served as a candlestick for the paschal
candle1. The censer in common use may generally
be seen hanging from the circular plate below the
pricket of the lectern candlestick.

Although the worship of relics is forbidden by the
Coptic Church, yet the faithful have a firm belief in

1 See the illustrations of this in La Messe, vol. iii. pi. cxciv-cci.
The examples figured are mainly Italian.

GH. in.] Furniture. 69

their sovereign virtue. Hence every church has
its relics, — generally those of its patron saint. But
instead of being made a gazing-stock, they are care
fully shrouded from view and sewn up in bolster-like
cases which are covered with silk or some rich tissue,
embroidered or shot with gold. What these cases
contain — teeth, bones, hair, or shreds of raiment-
can only be conjectured, as they are never opened.
They are kept in lockers or aumbries underneath
the picture of the saint or martyr to whom they
belonged, or rarely, as at Al Mu'allakah, in separate
moveable reliquaries. In the churches of the Harat-
ar-Rum, women may often be seen sitting on the
floor and nursing a case of relics, which is passed
from one to another as they chat unconcernedly
about their worldly matters ; for they have recourse
to the healing powers of the relics for the slightest
ailments. In the same way I have seen a priest
laying his hands and making passes on the head of a
boy who was troubled with headaches. If ever the
Coptic churches had relic-cases of metal or costly
work, like the sumptuous enamelled and jewelled
shrines of western mediaeval art, they have long ago
perished, and their memorial with them. But while
the Copts retain the common early faith in the
efficacy of relics, they do not and never did pay to
them the same idolatrous honour that was often
bestowed in the church of Rome : and so doubtless
they did not lavish the same skill and wealth in
making shrines to contain them.

The lamps and lights of the Egyptian churches
are of such variety and beauty as to deserve a full
notice. First of all — to be mentioned only with
sorrow and regret— come the ancient lamps of glass

yo Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.IH.

enamelled with splendid designs and bands of Arabic
writing in the most lovely colours. These, the work
of thirteenth-century artists, were once hung before
the haikal in many Coptic churches, but have now
entirely disappeared : one or two specimens however
may be seen at the British Museum and at South

Kensington. Each lamp had
three handles by which it was
suspended, and formed really
only a case for an inner ves
sel of oil. The effect of the
light shining through and
throwing out all the enamel
led colours was superb. The
same form of lamp in plain
glass still lingers in one or
two churches, as at Abu
Sargah, where it is hidden
away and only used once a
year, on Good Friday1: there
is another at Sitt Mariam by
Abu-'s-Sifain. The churches
in the monasteries of the
desert, and many of the
ancient mosques of Cairo,
were quite lately adorned with these magnificent
lamps : but shortly before the war all that remained
were taken down by order of the then prime minister,
Riaz Pasha, and stowed away in packing cases in
the public library. It is a relief to hear that now they
have been placed to the number of eighty in the
museum of Arab art in the mosque of Al Hakim,

A.J.B.

Fig. 15. — Ancient Iron Candelabrui
at Abu-'s-Sifain.

See the illustration on p. 41 supra.

CH. in.] Furniture. 71

from whence four have been sent on loan to the South
Kensington Museum. These latter date from the
fourteenth century, and are extremely beautiful.
Three of them belonged originally to the mosque of
Sultan Hassan, and are inscribed with the titles of
that sovereign, who reigned about 1 350 A. D. ; and the
fourth bears the name of Al Malik az-Zahir Barkuk,
about 1390, the first of the Circassian Mameluke
sultans. The three former lamps have a text from
the koran, enamelled round the neck, and running
as follows : ' God is the light of the heavens and the
earth : his light is as a niche in which is a lamp :
the lamp is in a glass : the glass is as it were a
glittering star.' Cobalt and a dark red are the pre
dominant colours in these enamels : white and olive
green are also used in slighter touches.

There can be no question that most of the extant
specimens of enamelled lamps are of Arab manufac
ture, and that there were large glassworks in the
middle ages at or near Damascus, and possibly also
at Cairo. But whether these lamps are really Arab
or Venetian in origin, whether the art of enamelling
on glass passed from Venice to Cairo and Damascus,
or arose first in the East, is a moot point which I
shall not attempt to settle. There are however
some waifs and strays of evidence, which seem to
indicate that the flow of the current was eastward
rather than westward. Another form of pensile
lamp with a globed body, short neck, broad lip, and
stem built of rings successively tapering downward
and ending below in a fluted drop, seems to me of
distinctly Venetian origin. The body too is decked
with medallions, each enclosing a lion's head in high
relief — a form of ornamentation in glass almost

72 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

exclusively Venetian. I have only found two of these
lamps in all the churches — one, figured in the illustra
tion, in an aumbry at Sitt Mariam by Abu-'s-Sifain,
and one hanging before the altar screen at Al 'Adra,
in the Kasr-ash-ShamnYah. They are not unlike
some of the gabathae used in the western churches.

Fig. 16 — Glass Lamp at Sitt Mariam.

Almost identical with these in form, and not less
Venetian in character, are the graceful silver lamps
of which examples may be seen in the Harat-ar-Rum
and in many other churches. Dair Tadrus is par
ticularly rich in them. They vary from 4 in. to 8 in. or

CH. III.]

Furniture.

10 in. in height, and the beauty of their shape is en
hanced by pierced designs which give them an air of
great lightness and elegance. Many of the specimens
are quite modern and of base silver ; for though the
art of working in glass is lost, metal-working still

flourishes in Cairo, and these
copies in metal of the old
glass shapes have been
handed down to the present
day. •

Yet another kind of metal
hanging lamp differs from the
last in having a broader and
fuller body and no stem be
low : moreover instead of
being hung by chains, it is
upheld by three short metal
rods which are loosely at
tached to the three handles
on the body and are joined
by a cross piece above : they
are also ornamented with
loose spherical bosses. A
lamp of this description is
very rare, but I have seen
two or three in Dair Tadrus.
Bell -shaped cups and
rimmed bowls of plain white

Fig. 17.— Bronze Lamp at Dair ladrus.

glass suspended by chains

are common in all the Coptic churches, and are
hung before paintings, before the altar-screen, or
in the niche of the eastern wall.

In the middle ages there was in use a very beauti
ful form of lamp, of which I have never seen a perfect

74 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

specimen surviving. It was modelled roughly after
the common pattern of classical earthenware lamps,
but differed in having a spheroid body, from which
arose a short broad-lipped funnel, joined to the body
by a handle : the spout was long, narrow, and open.
Though made of earthenware, the lamp was covered
with a very rich and lovely glaze or rather enamel,
generally of a most exquisite turquoise blue colour,
though sapphire blue and many very beautiful shades
of green are also found. Fragments of these lamps
are pretty plentiful among the rubbish-mounds of
Old Cairo ; and I discovered one specimen very little
mutilated, and not long disused, in an outhouse be
longing to the Dair-al-Banat by Abu-'s-Sifain.

Of a pharos, or tower for lights, I have seen but few
specimens. One example, a wooden structure, taper
ing upwards in four polygonal tiers or stages, is at
Abu-'s-Sifain lying overthrown in the dust behind
the wall pictures on the south side of the nave. The
light-tower was common in the West, and is often
mentioned in the Liber Pontificalis of Anastasius
among the gifts to churches. Something of the
same kind is the silver tower described by Paul the
Silentiary as belonging to St. Sophia. There was a
golden phare at the cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle.
Pope Sylvester also had one made of pure gold1, and
Adrian I. a cross-shaped phare to hold 1370 tapers.
A tenth-century painting showed two Byzantine-
looking light- towers as belonging to Canterbury
cathedral. Splendid works of the same kind were
also at Cluny and St. Remy. The term pharos is

1 Lenoir's Architecture Monastique, ii. 137, quoted by Texier
and Pullan.

CH. in.] Furniture. 75

of course derived from the great lighthouse of
Alexandria, and it lingers, little changed, in the
modern Arabic ( fanus.'

Coronae or crown-like chandeliers, once existed in
the churches of Cairo in great profusion, and were
doubtless made of precious metals. The few that
remain are of pierced bronze or copper, and are
flung away disused into dark corners. Two belong
to Mari Mina, one to Abu-'s-Sifain, and one to Dair
Tadrus. Regarding the English use of the corona,
one cannot do better than quote the words of Rock1,
who, after saying that the pyx hung under the altar-
canopy in the form of a dove or a covered cup, adds :
' Round it in most if not in all churches there shone a
ring of ever burning lights fastened upon a hoop of
silver or bright metal, hanging also by a chain from
the inner roof of the canopy/ Bede speaks of a
large bronze hoop studded with lamps surrounding a
silver cross; and in the eighth century in Ireland
'crowns of gold and silver' hung over the shrine of
St. Bridget in her church at Kildare. But I think
that in the churches of the Copts the corona never
hung from the canopy over the altar : its place was
either before the haikal-screen, or possibly within the
haikal eastward of the altar.

Of the curious seven-wicked lamp of iron at Abu-
's-Sifain, the cresset-stone at Anba Shanudah, the
standard candlesticks and gospel-stands in various
churches, the various altar - candlesticks, and the
beautiful dragon-candlestick at Mari Mina, descrip
tions will be found in their several places elsewhere.
I will only add a rough parallel to the last mentioned

1 Vol. i. p. 200.

76 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.IH,

JIJ.B

Fig. 18.— Seven- wicked Lamp of Iron for the Anointing of the Sick.

AJB

1-9

Fig. 19. — Specimens of Altar-candlesticks.

CH. in. ] Furniture. 7 7

from an Anglo-Saxon ritual1. The fire which was
kindled at the church door on each of the three last
days of passion week, was caught by a candle set in
a dragon-candlestick, and from it all the other tapers
were lighted. This candlestick however was merely
a serpent so mounted on a staff that its mouth formed
the single socket : and it further differed from the
many-lighted dragons of Mari Mina in being portable
instead of fixed. But the symbolism is doubtless the
same in both cases. Rock2 gives a woodcut' of a
candle set in a dragon's head from the Salisbury
Processional of 1528 A.D.

The ostrich-egg is a curious but common ornament
in the religious buildings of the Copts, the Greeks,
and the Muslims alike. It may be seen in the ancient
church of the Greek convent in Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah,
and in most of the mosques of Cairo, mounted in a
metal frame and hung by a single wire from the roof.
In the churches it usually hangs before the altar-
screen : but at Abu-'s-Sifain an ostrich-egg hangs also
from the point of the arches of the baldakyn. Here
and there it hangs above a lamp, threaded by the
suspending cord, as in the church of the Nativity at
Bethlehem : and sometimes it hangs from a wooden
arm, fastened on to the pillars of the nave, as in the
Nestorian church of At-Tahara at Mosul3. Some
times instead of the egg of the ostrich, artificial eggs
of beautiful Damascus porcelain, coloured with de
signs in blue or purple, were employed. These have
almost entirely disappeared : in the churches of the

1 See Warren's Lit. and Rit. of the Celtic Church, p. 53.

2 Vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 244.

3 See the illustration in Dr. Badger's work, The Nestorians and
their Rituals (London, 1852), vol. ii. facing p. 20.

78 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

two Cairos there is I believe not one left : but a few
still remain in the churches of Upper Egypt, and in
the mosques. The tomb-mosque of Kait Bey without
the walls of Cairo contains some fine specimens.
These porcelain eggs are considerably smaller than
an ostrich-egg, but larger than a hen's egg. In the
British Museum there is a porcelain egg from
Abyssinia with cherubim rudely painted under the
glaze. It clearly belonged once to a Christian place
of worship.

The 'griffin's egg' was a common ornament in our
own mediaeval churches. In an inventory of 1383
A.D. no less than nine are mentioned as belonging
to Durham cathedral l, and Pennant speaks of two
as still remaining in ijSo2. These griffins' eggs
were hung up with other curiosities such as the
' horn of a unicorn ' before the altar or round St.
Cuthbert's shrine. They were merely rarities
brought by soldiers or pilgrims from foreign lands,
and presented as offerings of devotion to the church :
and in some chancels special aumbries with locked
gratings were provided for them. Many of the richer
churches had quite large collections of curiosities, and
served as a sort of museum. But in our own country
the ostrich-egg does not seem to have had any sym
bolical import or to have been regarded as a distinctly
ecclesiastical ornament. From the fact that marble
eggs are said to have been discovered in some early
martyrs' tombs at Rome, and that in all Christian
lands eggs are associated with Easter-time, some
think that the egg was regarded as emblematic of
the resurrection. An entirely different explanation

Raine's Tomb of St. Cuthbert, pp. 123-127.
Tour in Wales, vol. ii. p. 228.

( H. EH.] Furniture. 79

of the symbol, one current among the Copts them
selves, was given to me by the priest of Abu'-s-
Sifain. In contradiction to common belief, he said
that the ostrich is remarkable for the ceaseless care
with which she guards her eggs ; and the people have
a legend that if the mother-bird once removes her
eyes from the nest, the eggs become spoiled and
worthless that instant. So the vigilance of the
ostrich has passed into a proverb, and the egg is a
type reminding the believer that his thoughts should
be fixed irremoveably on spiritual things. This
explanation seems rational ; for the devotion of the
ostrich to its brood is, I believe, in accordance with
the facts of natural history, and the use of the egg
may well have arisen in Africa where the habits of
the bird are better known. At any rate it is the
best solution of a vexed question.

Bells, though for the most part long since
abolished, were once in common use in the Coptic
churches. Apollinarius, the emissary of Justinian,
' rang the bells ' on the first day of the week in
Alexandria to call the people together to hear the
king's letter1. The present patriarch told me that
when the churches of Alexandria were destroyed,
many of the bells were rescued and carried off to the
Natrun- monasteries where they still remain. One
in particular he described as having the figures of
the four Evangelists engraved upon it and an inscrip
tion round the border. A church bell hung in a
niche in the western wall is still used at Dair Mikhail
towards Tura; but the church stands in open country,
where the ringing of the bell can wound no Muslim
prejudice. The same remark applies to the bell at

1 Al Makrizi, Malan's trans, p. 65.

So Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

Miri Mina, but no church bells besides are used now
in Cairo or Old Cairo. It is more than a thousand
years since their voice was silenced by order of the
conquerors, and the silence remains unbroken. Now
it is only in the solitudes of the desert that the clang
is ever heard of a church-bell ringing from afar.
After the formal prohibition of bells in 850 A.D. a
board struck with a mallet was employed for the
same purpose — an instrument which continues in
usage to-day, though that too was forbidden in 1352
A. D. To this day the monks on the top of Tchad-
Amba, a mountain in Abyssinia, use in place of bells
three curious gongs which preserve the tradition of
the board. They are merely flat stones suspended
by leather thongs to the branches of a tree, but
when struck with smaller stones they give out a
pleasant metallic sound \

In the Greek Church the use of bells was not
known before about 900 A. D., and is said to have
been derived from the Venetians 2. The mallet and
board however are frequently depicted in the paint
ings at Mount Athos. The Maronites use two boards
which form a sort of large clapper. Instead of wood
we sometimes find a plate of iron or brass hung by
chains 3, which was called ' sementron' or 'semantron.'
Gongs of this kind are figured in Curzon's Monas
teries 4; and they are mentioned by Leo Allatius, who
cites some ancient Byzantine authorities for their
employment. The semantron was suspended in the

1 The Wild Tribes of the Soudan, by F. L. James ; London,
1883, p. 236.

2 Goar's Euchol. p. 560. 3 Lenoir, i. p. 155.

4 On the title-page a monk is shown beating a wooden seman-
tron, and another wooden gong and also one of iron are given on
p. 300.

CH. in.] Furniture. 81

narthex or atrium : for bell-towers to hold a chime of
bells were quite unknown in the East before the
middle ages ; and even the Coptic churches had never
more than a pair of bells, each about eight or ten
inches in diameter. The familiar peal of our English
churches is scarcely older than the buildings from
which it resounds, and it carries to the ear no clear
echo of early Christian times.

Yet even in England the wooden gong was used
instead of bells l on the last three days of passion
week, the ' still days' as they were called for that
reason.

Handbells are still rung, or rather beaten, as part
of the regular musical accompaniment of the chants
in the Coptic service. Renaudot2 relates that the
bishops who accompanied George, the son of the
king of Nubia, on his mission to Egypt, used to ring
bells at the elevation of the host, adding that the
practice was in conformity with the early usage of the
Church. This was about 850 A. D. But the custom,
if ever it was in vogue among the Copts, has now
died away completely : there are no handbells be
longing to the altar.

In the records of the early British and Irish
churches handbells are mentioned as early as the
sixth century : and there seems some reason for the
opinion that even larger church bells were in use at
the same period in Ireland, and that the round towers
in some cases served as belfries. The handbell was
part of the regular insignia of an Irish bishop de
livered to him at his consecration; and a bell of this

1 Cf. Udalric, lib. i. Consuet. Clun. c. 12, quoted by Ducange,
and Amalarius de Eccl. OJ. lib. iv. c. 22, quoted by Rock,

2 Hist. Pat. Alex. p. 282.

VOL. II. G

82 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

kind attributed to St. Patrick is still preserved at
Dublin. For a fuller account of the matter, the
reader is referred to Mr. Warren's Celtic Ritual 1.
It does not however appear that these bells
were used at the elevation of the host ; nor is there
any evidence to show that the practice of elevation
was introduced into the western churches before the
eleventh century, though it had existed for many
centuries previously in the East. In English records
the mention of handbells is late and scanty. By
the constitutions of ^Egidius de Bridport, bishop of
Sarum2 in 1265, they were ordered to be carried in
procession in the visitation of the sick : the same
usage prevailed also in funeral processions. The use
of the handbell, or sacring bell as it was called, at
low mass, and the ringing of the sanctus bell at high
mass, date no doubt from the thirteenth century,
when the custom of elevating the host first began to
be adopted in our own country. The Coptic hand
bell is always tongueless, and is sounded by being
struck with a short rod of iron.

The wild and somewhat barbaric clash of cymbals,
which accompanies the chanting in every ancient
church of Egypt, is probably a relic of pagan rather
than of Jewish tradition. The very sound seems to
bridge over the gulf of ages, and to carry the imagi
nation back to the days of Bacchic dances and
frenzied rites of Cybele, in much the same manner
as the sound of church bells at home seems to place
one back in the England of five centuries ago. But
beyond this romantic interest the cymbal seems to
have little history : eastern in origin and orgiastic in
character, it seems never to have been widely adopted

1 Pp. 92-94. 2 Rock, ii. 462, n. 31.

CH. in.] Furniture. 83

as an instrument in the worship of the West. Yet
cymbals are mentioned now and again as used in Latin
churches. A gift of cymbals to a church is quoted
by Du Cange l, and allusion to cymbals is not un-
frequent in the Ordo Romanus. Sometimes no
doubt their usage corresponded rather to that of
bells, as they summoned the people to worship or
sounded at funerals ; yet there is clear though scanty
evidence of their employment in the choral service
of the church 2.

Staves or crutches shaped like a tau-cross may be
seen in many of the old churches, where there are no
seats to relieve the aged or ailing among the con
gregation during the long services. Similar crutches
were allowed, according to Rock 3, in the early days
of the western Church to certain ecclesiastics ; but it
was customary to lay them down during the reading
of the gospel. This usage lasted till the middle of
the twelfth century.

MURAL PAINTINGS.

That the churches of Egypt were once rich in
wall-paintings is proved no less by the fine remains
existing than by the testimony of history. According
to Al Makrizi4, the patriarch Cyril, c. 420 A. D., was
the * first to set up figures ' (i. e. paintings and not
' statues or images' as Mr. Malan renders it) ' in the
churches of Alexandria and in the land of Egypt.'

1 From the Acta Episc. Cenoman. p. 303.

2 Beletus de Div. Off. c. 86.

3 Vol. ii. p. 134, n. 22. It should be noted however that the
authorities cited are all French.

4 Malan's transl. p. 56.

G 2

84 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

There is not the smallest evidence that the Copts at
any period sanctioned the use of statues or sculp
tured images for the adornment of their religious
buildings, and there is decided evidence to the con
trary. Three centuries later, we read l that one
Usama ben Zaid pulled down churches, ' broke the
crosses, rubbed off the pictures, broke up all the
images:' but as it is clear that 'pictures' here can
only mean wall-paintings, so I believe that by
' images ' the writer intended what we call pictures ;
for the Arabic in such cases is usually ambiguous,
the same term applying to both statues and pictures.
Again, about 860 A. D. Theophilus ' ordered all
pictures to be effaced from the churches, so that
not a picture remained in any one church 2 ': — words
which again seem clearly to convey the idea of wall-
painting. Even as late as the eleventh century the
art had not entirely perished : for Renaudot relates
that in the Field of the Abyssinians3 near Old Cairo
was a church dedicated to Mari Buktor, which in the
days of Abu Salah 4 the Armenian had a Coptic
inscription, stating that the wall-paintings were done
in the year of the martyrs 759 or 1043 A. D. Not a
stone, not a trace, not a rumour of Mari Buktor now
remains : and we have no means of comparing any
eleventh-century wall-paintings, \vhich were perhaps
the last effort of the art before its final extinction in
Egypt, with, those earlier works which still adorn
many of the churches. For no one of the numerous

1 Al Makrizi, p. 77. 2 Id. p. 84.

3 This name has quite vanished; and the most diligent enquiries
among the Copts of to-day failed to produce anything but a con
fession of blank ignorance.

1 The spelling JL* y\ is given in MS. 307. Bib. Nat. Paris.

CH. in.] Furniture. 85

paintings that survive has a date clearly fixed by an
inscription or other evidence : yet several of them
cannot be later than the eighth century, and some
original frescoes remain from the days of Constantine.
All these paintings are done upon dry plaster or
marble, and not on fresh plaster ; and the colours are
mixed with some viscous medium : they are, in fact,
distemper paintings, and should not in strict accuracy
be called frescoes. But I have already claimed for
convenience sake to use the term fresco in the wider
sense conferred upon it by popular usage.

The parts of a church most commonly beautified
with these paintings are the pillars of the nave, and
the curved wall and the conch of the apse. I have
no doubt that where we now find the apse-wall
encrusted with marble and set with fine mosaics,
the same space was originally occupied by fres
coes, which were replaced when decayed by the
later style of decoration. Thus at Abu Sargah
the principal apse is covered with this marble
work, while the dim and disused western chapel
still retains in its apse some of its original eighth-
century paintings. Moreover on the eleven pillars
in the nave which are unaltered, the colour and
outline of the figures once blazoned upon them
are still dimly discernible. All the figures in this
church are five or six feet high, and are specially
interesting as showing the resemblance of the early
Coptic vestments to those of the western Churches.
In style there is little difference to be detected
between the various specimens surviving. All are
Byzantine in character, with set faces, conventional
drapery, and stiff outlines. But there are signs of
more life and freedom sometimes to be found in the

86 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

rare examples of grouped figures, which exist for
instance in the satellite church of Al Mu'allakah and
in the triforium of K. Burbarah. In Al Mu'allakah
itself there remains only one single incomplete figure
on a pillar. Anba Shanudah has also one figure
on a pillar, and some very rude uncoloured frescoes
in the chapel of Mari Girgis above it. Traces of a
monochrome design of the Baptism of our Lord may
be seen also on the eastern wall of the chapel of
Sitt Mariam over the mandarah of Abu-'s-Sifain.
Besides the foregoing examples, most of the niches
in the sanctuaries and other chapels contain a fresco
figure of Christ in glory, his right hand raised in the
attitude of benediction. This figure, found in the
tombs of Urgub in Cappadocia and common all over
the East, may be seen also in some Roman and
Lombard churches, but not elsewhere in the West l.
The Latin Church preferred to depict Christ crucified.
All over Egypt the same practice of decorating the
church walls with figures of saints and angels seems
to have prevailed. Not merely in the churches
dotted along the banks of the Nile, to the very farthest
boundary of Egypt in the south, may ancient frescoes
still be traced upon the walls ; but wherever the
monks penetrated the remotest desert, there they
carried with them the art of mural painting. In the
western desert the monasteries of the Natrun valley
have many examples still remaining, as for instance
the refectory at Dair-as-Suriani, and the nave of the
church dedicated to Anba Bishoi : while in the
eastern desert by the Red Sea the ancient church
of Mari Antonios has its walls nearly covered with
dim and venerable frescoes.

1 Texier and Pullan, p. 42.

CH. in.] Fttrniture. 87

PICTURES.

The ordinary paintings on panel or canvas have
been described so very fully elsewhere that a few
general remarks here will be sufficient. Panel-
pictures are older and generally more interesting
than those on canvas — a material which has only
been used during the last two hundred years : and
the painters on canvas were so childishly wanting in
all power of design and colouring, that their works
may be dismissed in one sentence as worthless.
The paintings on panel are rather difficult to classify,
either by date or style, owing to the persistence of
Byzantine methods and traditions. Yet there are a
small number of pictures clearly dated, and these
serve as marks by which a certain order of progress,
or rather decadence, can be noted.

There are no remaining pictures, I believe, older
than the thirteenth century, and only one that can
be assigned beyond question to that period — the
beautiful tabernacle or altar-casket at Abu-'s-Sifain.
This forms a class by itself, being distinguished by a
luminous softness of chiaroscuro and a depth of
idealised expression, both very surprising in an
oriental picture. The date, 1280 A.D., is determined
by a clear inscription in Coptic. So much has been
said already about the picture, that I will only add
that this solitary work of art is enough by its sole
evidence (if no other picture can be assigned to the
same epoch) to establish the existence in Egypt of a
school of painters far superior to contemporary
artists in Italy. Possibly the large painting of the
Life of our Lord in the same church may belong to
the same period : or even if somewhat later, it is

88 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.IH.

little inferior in execution. Both pictures, and in
fact all the older pictures in Coptic churches, are
painted on panel prepared in a peculiar manner.
The wood is sometimes (but not generally) overlaid
with canvas to prevent it splitting ; on the canvas
is spread a thin coating of gesso ; and the gesso is
then covered with gold. The golden background,
therefore, common in these early paintings, is not
put in separately, but is merely that part of the
prepared surface which is not covered in with colours.
This point is proved by many examples — by two
pictures for instance in the writer's possession — in
which flakes of colour have fallen off revealing a
surface of gold below. The gold seems to have
been burnished to a high degree of brilliancy, gleam
ing like pure metal, as in our best manuscript illu
minations. In some cases the principal outlines of
the design were engraved on the gold with a steel
pointel, being doubtless transferred in this manner
from paper sketches : and sometimes ornamentation
of scrollwork or dotwork — especially upon the nimbus
of saints — is stamped into the gesso. The picture
from which the frontispiece is taken bears in Arabic
the signature of ' the pilgrim Nasif/ and dates from
the fifteenth or sixteenth century. It is remarkable
for a most beautiful effect which shows upon the cover
of the gospel, on the tunic of St. Mercurius, and in
other places, — a lustre of the most brilliant and pel
lucid ruby-colour, as pure and as metallic as the lustre
of the finest Gubbio ware. This effect is produced
by overlaying a fine clear pigment on a ground of
burnished gold. The use of canvas as the material
for receiving the colours, which did not begin till the
eighteenth century, marks the last stage in the decline

CH. in.] Furniture. 89

of Coptic painting. No pictures of the last or present
century have any value, except as preserving in a
sort of mummy-like embalmment the lifeless tradi
tions of the past.

There is reason to believe that the art of painting
on panel existed from a very early period in Egypt :
and if one remembers how for ages the Copts and
their churches were harried by fire and sword, and
how their Muslim persecutors hated not only the
religion of Christ, but all delineation of divine or
human figure ; the wonder is not so much that all
more ancient pictures have perished, as that any
paintings dating from so remote a period as the
thirteenth century should have survived the devasta
tions of six hundred years. It is however quite
certain that such a work of art as the tabernacle at
Abu-'s-Sifain never arose in full perfection as a
sudden growth of chance. The power it betokens
was not developed within the limits of a single life
time, but followed upon long antecedents of trained
skill and practised imagination. How early the
painting of panels began we do not know : but the
story told by Vansleb proves at least that the Copts
claimed a tradition of art ascending to the very time
of the apostles. He relates1 that in the church of
St. Mark at Alexandria there was two centuries ago
a picture of St. Michael, said to have been painted
by the hand of St. Luke the Evangelist. The legend
is that the Venetians seized it, and put out to sea
meaning to carry it away : but five times they were
driven back to harbour by tempests, until at last
they relinquished the picture. Next some Beduins,
hearing the story of its value, broke into the church,

1 Voyage fait en Egypte, p. 183.

90 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

thinking to steal the icon and sell it to the Venetians.
But, once in the building, they found their feet holden
by some miraculous power, as often as they tried to
go out with their booty. So they too failed in their
unholy enterprise. Whatever be the worth of this
legend, extant remains of mural painting prove that
in the fourth century at least Coptic artists possessed
such skill in design and colour as might by a natural
process of development, if unchecked and unarrested,
achieve very great results. It is true no doubt that
Coptic art generally has a certain large leaven of
Byzantine elements, and true that Byzantine art in
Europe preserved a crystalline fixity of style and
merit for centuries together : yet the Coptic paint
ings that remain, instead of indicating a single type
immutably permanent, show a steady continuous
order of change ; and although this change is a
change of disintegration and decay, it proves never
theless that the art contained organic vitality and
vigour. So we may reason backwards, and from the
splendour which we can witness slowly waning
through six centuries, we may infer a dawn far
beyond our ken, and watch the light growing larger,
in stages at least as slow as those by which we have
seen it diminish.

Of pictures with fixed dates there are two sets
belonging to the fifteenth century, both at Sitt
Mariam in Dair Abu-'s-Sifain. One of these, on the
south wall of the choir, contains three pictures — the
Baptism of our Lord, Abu Nafr, and Anba Shanudah :
these are dated 1179 of the Coptic era or 1462 A.D.
Close beside them on the haikal-screen of the south
aisle-chapel is a very interesting set of five paintings
with a date corresponding to 1477 A.D. In com-

CH. in. ] Furniture. 9 1

parison with the art of the thirteenth century, the
faces in these pictures have lost somewhat in lifelike
expressiveness : the features have become more set,
and the folds of the drapery more conventional :
there is not the same masterly softness of outline,
the same delicate gradation of light and shadow.
Yet the technical manipulation of colour is still
admirable : only it seems as if the spiritual qualities
had in a great measure gone out of the painting.

Works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
are tolerably common ; but there is a marked su
periority in the former, in which the stiffness of
decay is far less conspicuous. Good examples may be
seen in Abu Sargah, Al Mu'allakah, Al Amir Tadrus,
and other churches. From the sixteenth century
onwards the decline in power and originality becomes
more and more decided : till the last stage is reached,
after the lifeless daubs of the last century, in the dead
cessation of painting at the present time.

To sum up : Coptic art seems never to have been
tied and bound by rigid laws of tradition in the same
manner as the art of the Greek Church. There is
no analogy in Cairo to the experience of Didron,
who fifty years ago saw the monks of Mount Athos
reproducing by rule of thumb the designs and colours
of the fourth or fifth century, and who found a school
of painters ' painting by instinct, as the swallows
build their nest or bees their honeycomb.' Nor are
there to-day in Egypt, as in Russia, artists who still
paint in the manner of the thirteenth century.
Further, it is not merely in style that the Coptic
painters indicate their independence and individuality.
The variety of subjects is no less striking than the
variety of treatment of the same subject. The arch-

92 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

angel Gabriel is painted sometimes with a sword,
sometimes with a cross, sometimes with a trumpet :
sometimes in a single flowing robe, sometimes in
full pontificals. The Annunciation and the Nativity
are seldom rendered twice with the same details : and
while, generally speaking, the subjects correspond
in frequency and variety with those early Christian
paintings in the West, yet there are some curious
exceptions and differences. While, for example, in
the catacombs at Rome the commonest subject of
all is Christ as the good shepherd *, I do not re
member a single instance of the same figure depicted
on any Coptic wall or panel. Not less remarkable
is the absence of many of the most familiar symbols
of western Christendom. Birds eating grapes, and
stags, occur in one or two wood-carvings ; there is
one solitary instance of a dolphin carved in marble :
the ship and the fish are found neither in carving
nor painting, although Clement of Alexandria is the
first to bear witness to the use of IX0UC as a
Christian symbol. On the other hand the churches
abound in paintings of scenes and persons distinc
tively Coptic, — martyrs like the Five and their
Mother, saints like Mari Mlna, patriarchs like Anba
Shanudah, and hermits or ascetics like Antony, Abu
Nafr, or Barsum al 'Arian. Some of these, and
only some, left a renown that travelled beyond the
borders of Egypt ; but all received more honour in
their own country, where their heroic deeds and
sufferings are still told in legend, and their forms
are still blazoned upon the panels of the sanctuary.
There is yet another remarkable difference be-

1 Roma Sotteranea, transl, by Northcote and Brownlow, Lond.
1879, vol. ii. p. 45.

CH. in.] Fzirniture. 93

tween Greek and Coptic painting, and it is a point
which should not be passed in silence ; for it dis
tinguishes Coptic art not only from Greek but also
from all art of western Christendom. The Copts
seem to be the only Christians who do not delight
to paint the tortures of saints on earth or sinners
in hell. Our ancient English churches abound in
frescoes of skulls and bones and hideous devils. It
was a common thing to depict the Last Judgment
over the chancel-arch ; and nothing could be too
revolting to embellish the scene. The church at
Lutterworth, for instance, has this fresco still in
good condition ; round the Lady chapel at Win
chester cathedral malignant imps, enacting dreadful
scenes of torture, may still be traced upon the faded
surface of the walls ; and over the western door of
Amiens cathedral the Resurrection and Judgment,
sculptured in stone, display the same horrors as the
illuminations of the Utrecht Psalter, the frescoes of
Andrea Orcagna in the Campo Santo at Pisa, and
the mosaics of the Duomo at Torcello. So too in
the monasteries of Mount Athos every church has
its Last Judgment painted in the porch, with details
of horror which Curzon has described with keen
humour1. Elsewhere the same author remarks,
* These Greek monks have a singular love for the
devil and for everything horrible and hideous ;
I never saw a well-looking Greek saint anywhere2.'

In the Coptic Church these horrors have no
counterpart. In no part of the world do they
belong to the early ages of the Church, but are
the outcome of a diseased taste in the middle ages.

1 Monasteries of the Levant, pp. 301-302.

2 Id. p. 258.

94 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

Mr. Ruskin indeed thinks that the mosaics at Tor-
cello may be as old as the seventh century1; but
if so, there is a wide gulf of time between them
and the like delineations elsewhere. The frescoes
at Mount Athos are in some cases quite modern ;
but the subject, if not the work, carries back for
some centuries. Texier and Pullan 2 record other
examples of the Last Judgment, but none of great
antiquity. The more refined and tender feeling of
the early Church, while delighting to paint our Lord
in glory surrounded by triumphant saints, yet left
the doom of the wicked to the silence of imagina
tion. This wise reserve, this refusal to pourtray in
colours the torments of hell, or to countenance a
religion of terror, has been and is now the con
tinuous characteristic of Coptic art as opposed to
all other Christian art whatsoever. If then Texier
and Pullan are right in thinking these horror-
paintings exclusively Byzantine in character, and in
deriving their origin from the soul-weighing and
other legends of the ancient Egyptian mythology;
it is at least very curious that for the first six
centuries of our era— the time when the worship of
Isis and Osiris was still practised — there should be
no trace and no mention of such paintings, and that
Egypt itself should be the one country distinguished
from all others by the absence of such paintings at
all epochs of Christian history. Rather, if the time
and place nearest the supposed connexion prove to
be the only time and place conspicuously wanting
m all sign of it, common sense and common logic
demand some other explanation. It would surely

1 Stones of Venice, vol. ii. App.

2 Byzantine Architecture, p. 41.

CH. in.] Furniture. 95

be just as reasonable to dwell upon the extraordi
nary resemblance between the mediaeval paintings
of hell throughout Europe and the place of torment
depicted in the Buddhist paintings of India1, and
to frame from this resemblance a theory of the con
nexion of Byzantine art with Buddhist. But there
is no need, I think, of any recondite searching.
Similar phases of belief and of artistic utterance
may have quite independent origins and develop
ments. One has only to remember how as time
went on the primitive idea of Christian life and
thought hardened down to an intolerant dogmatism
in theology, while its spirituality was sapped by
a vulgar craving for artistic realism ; and it is then
easy to understand how, from the slender material
furnished by Holy Writ, a depraved taste and a
diseased imagination, working in an age of super
stition, devised and painted in colours horrors worse
than those of any heathen Tartarus.

Passing now from subject to form, one may note
that the Copts do not share the Byzantine or Greek
practice of overlaying their panel pictures with plates
of silver, or setting them in metal frames. In most
of the Greek churches to-day such pictures may be
seen or rather conjectured ; for the whole panel is
covered except the faces of the figures, which peer
through holes in the silver, while the drapery and
other details of the scene are rudely engraved in
outline upon the surface. It is uncertain when
this custom began, but it seems of some antiquity.
Curzon mentions, among other pictures treated in
this manner, two portraits of the empress Theodora,

1 See Lord Lindsay's Sketches of the History of Christian Art,
vol. i. p. xxxiii.

96 Ancient Coptic Ck^lrches. [CH. m.

and two other paintings brought from Constanti
nople in the middle of the fifteenth century. These
are at the monastery of Vatopede, Mount Athos 1.
Of course the silver casing is designed as a safe
guard against the damage which would arise from
the custom of kissing pictures. From time to
time there seem to have been outbreaks of icono
clastic violence against the pictures in the churches
of Egypt. Thus as late as 1851 the patriarch
Cyrillus, the tasteless builder of the present hideous
cathedral in Cairo, considering that too much rever
ence was shown to pictures, and being determined
to put down the superstition, ordered paintings to
be brought from all quarters, and made a grand
bonfire of them. No doubt many of the oldest
and best thus perished, though in many other cases
the order was fortunately disregarded.

The Copts have a certain number of religious
pictures in their houses, mostly of small merit.
They pray before them, and burn tapers before
them, as offerings in fulfilment of a vow ; and
although the Church forbids prayer to saints, the
practice is not uncommon among the women, who
are of course more ignorant and superstitious than
the men. The saints so worshipped are chiefly
St. Michael, the Virgin Mary, St. George, and St.
Mercurius2.

1 Monasteries of the Levant, p. 326.

2 It may be useful to give in Arabic the three different eras by
which the date of Coptic pictures is marked. They are —

L~^ W ^-fr~-U (J^t the Coptic era of the Martyrs, which com
mences in 284 A. D.

(2) fcjo^L^o or s^sr^***-6, the era of the Messiah or of the

Nativity, = A. D.

(3) u^s*, the Mohammedan era of the Flight.

CHAPTER IV.

The Ecclesiastical Vestments of the Coptic

Clergy,

Previous A uthorities. — Dalmatic. — A mice. — Girdle. — Stole. — Pall. —

Armlets.

ART O US writers who have ventured to
treat of Coptic ecclesiastical vestments
have admitted the difficulty of reaching
any conclusions at once lucid and final,
and have for the most part, unconsciously as well
as consciously, exemplified and intensified the
obscurity with which the subject is beclouded. The
method I propose to follow now is, first, briefly to
review and compare together all the chief written
evidence upon the matter, and by the light of my
own information to decide, if possible, what really
are the canonical vestments : then to take these one
by one, describe them, and compare them with cor
responding vestments in other Churches eastern and
western : and, finally, to make mention of one or two
forms of vestments unrecorded by previous writers,
forms for which the evidence is rather pictorial than
written.

The first list to be given here is quoted from the

VOL. II. H

98 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.IV.

Arab historian Abu Dakn1, as rendered in English
by Sir E. Sadleir in 1693. I strongly suspect that
this English translation is second-hand work, being
taken direct from the Latin version of the same
author, published at Oxford in 1675. It is not sur
prising that mistakes arise in such a process of
translation and retranslation, even if the liturgical
terms in the original authority are technically accurate
and clearly distinguished, which is seldom if ever the
case. A further source of error, no less frequent
than vexatious, is the ignorance of lexicographers,
who seem to have not the smallest understanding of
liturgical language2. But to proceed: Abu Dakn
gives as the priestly vestments the following :—

1. A woollen ' ephod' about the head. This is
clearly the amice, though Abu Dakn remarks that it
is worn not only by priests but by all who enter the
church, — a statement not easily intelligible unless it
refers also to the turban ; but another explanation
will be suggested presently.

2. Dalmatic. A long linen garment reaching to
the feet and set with jewels in the form of a cross
upon the back, breast, borders, and cuffs of the
sleeves, or, if the church be poor, with silk embroidery
instead of jewels. This is one of many testimonies
to the great splendour of the ancient Coptic ritual.

3. Girdle.

4. Maniple carried by the priest only in the left
hand and not allowed to deacons or inferior orders.
This statement is extremely doubtful.

1 History of the Jacobites, tr. by Sir E. Sadleir, London, 1693.

2 It is a matter of great regret that even the best and most recent
Arabic lexicons, such as Lane's and Dr. Badger's, are so remarkably
deficient in this respect.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 99

5. Cope. The Latin rendering is ' pallium cum
cucullo,' and the vestment is stated to be used at
solemn times by priest, deacon, or subdeacon for
the mass, when no bishop is celebrating. The hood
goes over the amice. The cope was and is worn by
the Coptic clergy, and may be rightly so called here.

6. Stole. About this vestment the Latin version
remarks ' nulli ferunt nisi pontinces,' which becomes
in the English translation ' none wear the stole ex
cept bishops!' an absurdity which needs no refu
tation.

Let us now turn to the list given by Vansleb1, who
lived in Cairo in the years 1672-1673, and was for
the most part a careful observer. He gives seven
as the number of priestly vestments, viz. —

1. 'Aid, called in Arabic tuniah.

2. Amice. A long band of white linen which
priests and deacons wear twisted round the head.
Arabic ' teleisan ;' Coptic niXovion.

3. Girdle of silk.

4 and 5. Sleeves or armlets.

6. Stole.

7. G?/<?(chappe) which m'ust have a hood (chaperon)
for bishops but not for priests. The vestment seems
clearly marked by the hood as that mentioned by
Abu Dakn,. but the two authorities are at hopeless
variance as regards usage : for whereas Abu Dakn
assigns the cope with hood to priests and deacons,
to the exclusion of bishops, Vansleb makes the
hooded cope as opposed to the hoodless distinctive
of bishops as opposed to priests. Vansleb gives
' al burnus' as the Arabic equivalent.

1 Histoire de 1'figlise d' Alexandria, p. 60.
H 2

ioo Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

Renaudot1 in his wonderfully learned work on
the Oriental Liturgies cites two authorities for the
Coptic vestments, Gabriel and Abu Saba. Gabriel,
the LXXXVIII patriarch of Alexandria, in his book
on ritual, published in 1411 A.D., enumerates the
vestments as follows :—

1 . Aid or dalmatic of silk.

2. Epomis or amice of white silk.

3. Stole.

4. Girdle.

5 and 6. Sleeves.

7. Cope (pallium seu cappa) of white silk.
Similarly Abu Saba gives seven :—

1. Aid or dalmatic (vestis longa sive tunica).

2. Epomis or amice, like the ephod of Aaron.

3. Girdle. *
4 and 5. Sleeves.

6. Stole or eTnTpax^tov, which the priest hangs
from his neck.

7. Chasuble or cope (?) : ' Camisia sive alba,'
which for bishops has an orfrey of gold or precious
embroidery round the neck, but not for priests. If
we compare this statement with Vansleb's, it seems
quite possible that the vestment, called of course
' camisia sive alba' quite erroneously, is rather a cope
than a chasuble; and that the hood having disap
peared is merely indicated by embroidery, in strict
analogy with a common western practice.

Renaudot, after remarking that it is extremely
difficult to give a clear account of these several
vestments, owing to the fact that the terms are so
ill understood even by lexicographers, proceeds to

1 Liturgiarum Orientalium Collectio, second edition, Frankfort,
1847, 410., vol. i. pp. 161-163.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 101

discuss them in order — a process which it will be
convenient to follow with a rough translation.

1 . ' This is a long robe reaching to the ancles. A bu
Sabfc calls it djabat, the patriarch Gabriel tunta.
It is the Greek \ITWIOV or rather cmyapi-ov, and is
worn by all orders doivn to sub deacon : it is tight-
fitting and of white colour"

There can be no doubt that Renaudot's account
is quite accurate, and the vestment is what we call
a dalmatic.

2. ' This is called in Arabic Tilsan, the Coptic
equivalent being entojuuc, corruptly T <LI\OJUUC, or in
some glossaries mXovion. Here it must be understood
of a vestment or ornament worn on the shoulders, and so
nearer a siiperhumeral than rational. Biit it seems
capable of being aptly explained as the $<UV&\IQV or
chasuble of the Latins!

This last remark of Renaudot's, though apparently
agreeing with Du Cange, is unfortunate. Neale has
adopted the blunder from Renaudot without acknow
ledgment, thus stamping it with his own authority.
He states flatly that the chasuble is named tilsan by
the Copts2. Abu Dakn and Vansleb are both quite
clear that the amice is a Coptic vestment, and the
latter identifies the word under discussion by giving
the Arabic and Coptic names, 'teleisan' and niXovion.
There can be, therefore, no shadow of reason for
confounding amice with chasuble, or for allowing any
uncertainty as to the meaning of the ( tilsan ' : it is
established beyond question by Renaudot's own

1 This writer is constantly called Abu Sebah by Renaudot and
others, but the spelling in the text seems correct : it is taken from,
an Arabic MS. which gives U.^> y>l.

2 Eastern Church, Gen. Introd. vol. i. p. 309.

IO2 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

authorities, as well as by the independent autho
rities which I have cited. A point that does demand
some notice is the confusion between amice and
rational, a point which Renaudot passes over with
out explanation. The truth is that from the earliest
times there was the closest association between ephod
and breastplate, or superhumeral and rational. Thus
St. Jerome in his letter on the sacerdotal vestments1
remarks, ' the ephod or superhumeral is so coupled to
the rational that it may not be loose nor unattached,
but that both may be closely joined and be a mutual
help, each to other:' and again2 he describes the
rational as ' woven in gold and fine colours, the same
as the ephod.' In another place3 St. Jerome notices
that the corresponding word in the Septuagint is
€7ro>/*/y. Now there is some evidence that the
breastplate or rational was used as a regular Chris
tian vestment in the East. Marriott gives an en
graving of a leathern breastplate, found in a cofBn in
the church of the Passion at Moscow4, which cannot,
he says, be older than the tenth century, and is a
' wholly exceptional instance of a direct imitation of
the Jewish " rational.'" He quotes however a state
ment from King5, that Russian metropolitans wear
two jewelled ornaments upon the breast, which are
imagined to be taken from the Urim and Thummim
on Aaron's breastplate. But the strongest evidence
is offered by another eastern Church, the Armenian,
where to this day amice and rational are not only
found, but found attached together, as St. Jerome

1 Marriott's Vestiarium Christianum, p. 23.

2 Id- P- 17- 3 Id. p. 14.

1 Vest. Christ, pi. Ivii. and p. 245. 5 Greek Church, p. 39.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 103

describes the ephod and breastplate. The varkass
is defined as a small amice having a stiff collar, and
sometimes a breastplate of silver or gold attached1.
It seems then very probable that at some rather
early period in the Coptic Church both the amice
and rational may have existed : and if, like the cor
responding Armenian vestments, they were actually
fastened together, it is easy to understand how the two
names enxjojuuc and niXovion may have been used
almost interchangeably, and finally, when the rational
disappeared from use entirely, have given rise to an
apparent confusion. Or this confusion may be ex
plained in a different manner. In the western Church,
at any rate, the amice was originally of square or
oblong shape, and was worn with two of its corners
over-lapping each other across the upper part of the
breast ; and the strings after being carried round the
body were fastened in front. The amice thus worn
actually formed a kind of breastplate or rational ;
and, if the practice of the Egyptian Church was
analogous, it is quite natural that the terms encojuuc
and nsXonon should sometimes have been used as
synonyms.

3. ' The Girdle needs no explanation: it has the
authority of all antiquity, and a special meaning
among the Christians of the East since the Moham
medan conquest, having been prescribed by several of
the khalifs as a secular distinction between Christian
and Muslim. A I Hakim and Saldh ad-Din were
very rigoroiis in the imposition of this mark of
ignominy ; for such it was regarded by the laity,
while ecclesiastics vied with each other in praise of so

1 Fortescue's Armenian Church, p. 133.

IO4 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

honourable a vestment. From the fact that the
Christians of Egypt were distinguished by this zone,
they were often called " Christians of the Girdle?-
a name which has given rise to many foolish inter
pretations'

There is little need to alter or qualify the foregoing
remarks. The girdle was used not merely as a
priestly vestment, but it had its place in the cere
monial both of baptism and of marriage* The title
' Christians of the Girdle ' seems to have been given
first by the Venetians. The secular ordinance en-,
joining upon the Christians the wearing of a girdle,
to distinguish them from the Muslims, was first issued
not by Al Hakim, but a century and a half before
that time by the khalif Mutawakkil.

4 and 5. ' The two Sleeves are probably the same as
the tiriftaviKia which the Greeks, as Goar remarks, wear
loose with a silk string to tighten them on the arms.
The €7ri/j,aviKia correspond under another form to the
maniples of the Latin rite. But the Coptic sleeves,
judging by native descriptions, may be of a different
shape, though on this point we can give no certain
information.'

The identification of maniple and epimanikia is, I
think, a mistake. The ' certain information,' which
Renaudot desired concerning the form of the Coptic
sleeves, will be found elsewhere in this volume.

6. 'The Stole is hung from the neck. Abu Sabas
ignorance of Greek has led him to offer an extraordi
nary etymology: he says that Bitarchil means 'a
thousand rocks' The glossaries give CKO priori as
an equivalent to this Arabic word, but that is a term
unknown in ritual*

The etymology is absurd enough, but Renaudot,

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 105

by misquoting the Arabic, makes it appear still more
ridiculous. I am inclined to think that Abu Saba
knew a little Greek : the word he starts with is not
bitarchil but patrashil, or petrashil, which he deriv es
doubtless from Treryoa and \i\ios. He adds that the
stole is thus symbolical of the 'thousand rocks' which
beset the course of the Church, and demand ceaseless
vigilance on the part of the priests who pilot her !
His real ignorance lies in this, that he failed to see
that patrashil is a mere corruption of the Greek
term €Tnrpa^fi\Lov. It will be noticed that Renaudot
says nothing of the form of the stole, of which more
anon.

7. 'Last comes Al Burnus, or Ka^aa-Lov, as the Copts
understand it, — a term which often answers to the
Camisia, or alb of the Latins, but here denotes rather
a vestment corresponding to the ancient chasuble, coming
on the top of the other vestments and encircling the
whole body. The iipper part has a border of gold or
rich embroidery (called "{~KOj<Xl£. in Coptic, kaslet in
Arabic) like the Greek vestments carefully described by
Goar. The Burnus is usually of silk: but Abu 'I
Birkat relates that many monks and priests of Cairo
wear a plain chasuble of white wool without any
border, such as the Carthusians use at the altar. The
monks of St. Macarius did not use the chasuble in the
service of the altar, but only at public prayers.

' A II these vestments have symbolical meanings very
like the Greek. AzUhorities are confused, owing to
the reckless interchange of Arabic terms and the want
of a definite nomenclature, Coptic or Greek, corre
sponding to the Arabic : they will not repay study, as
they are not clear about the ancient form of the vest
ments, and the present form, perhaps a little changed,

106 ' Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

must be settled by observation, and not by written
evidence.

'But it is clear that all the Coptic vestments answer
very closely to the Greek. The Burnus answers to the
$aivb\iov or $t\wiov as figured by Goar, and to the
casula or planeta of the Latins. The first on the
list answers to the western alb, and the o-riydpiov : the
Christian Arabs have kept the latter term which
Echmimensis explains as kamis or camisia. The
Sleeves or eninaviKia are tightened by silken strings,
whence it is obvious that they are made in the Greek
fashion. The Tilsan or Epomis is the Amice, as
before remarked, and has a hood attached, according to
Echmimensis. The Stole is placed about the neck, and
descends crosswise over the shoulders, as in Gears
illustration. Mention is made also by Echmimensis of
a priest ' s cap (cidaris) ornamented zvith small crosses.

'These vestments were once, and are still, as rich
and costly as the several churches can provide. They
are jealously guarded, and may not be removed from
the church or the sacristy, as ordained in the most
ancient canons and confirmed over and over again.
They are consecrated, like every appurtenance of the
sacred service, by the bishop's benediction. If used by
heretics or persons of a different communion, they are
considered as profaned, and must be purified by set
prayers or else consumed by fire. Thus in the life of
Chail, the fifty-sixth patriarch, we read that the Ja
cobites got leave from the sultan to burn the sacerdotal
vestments of six Melkite bishops. There is scarcely any
difference of actual form between a bishop's and a
priest's vestments for the celebration : they are distin
guished, as among the Greeks, by embroidered circles,
orfreys, and crosses'.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 107

The question of the seventh vestment Renaudot
thus decides in favour of the chasuble almost without
discussion : and he is doubtless right. The cope in
the Coptic ceremonial, as in the West, was rather an
ornament for great festivals and solemn processions,
than a regular vestment to be worn in the service
of the altar. Renaudot points out the confusion
between alb and chasuble caused by the identifica
tion of the Burnus with the Greek Ka^aa-iov or KOL^KJIOV •,
a confusion which is the less easy to understand as
the alb is called in Arabic kamis. But Renaudot
himself seems as inconsistent as the authorities he
discusses. After stating that the Greek iTripaviKia
were furnished with silken strings, but that he had
no certain information about the Coptic sleeves, on
the next page he coolly remarks that the Coptic
sleeves have silken strings and therefore are like
the Greek ! Again, in the passages quoted above
he mentions several times over without question the
amice (amiculum) as one of the seven vestments :
yet in another place x he sweepingly alleges that the
amice (amictus) is unknown in the eastern Church.
The statement, quoted from Echmimensis, that the
amice had a hood attached, either points to a time
when the original form had so far been altered that
it consisted virtually of two distinct parts, or else is
a mere misapprehension arising from the manner in
which the amice was worn over the head, and which
is rightly described by Vansleb.

Between Renaudot and Denzinger, who published
his ' Ritus Orientalium' in 1863, there is so long a
lapse of time, that one might fairly expect the

1 Vol. ii. p. 55.

io8 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

interval to have added something to our knowledge
of the subject. But such is not the case. Denzinger
merely reproduces the very words of Renaudot and
the earlier authorities in a slavish manner, mildly
correcting Renaudot's mistake about the amice,
wrongly doubting his interesting testimony about
the Coptic priest's cap l, but adding otherwise not a
word of original criticism, and leaving, if possible, the
old confusion worse confounded than ever. Den-
zinger's work is, of course, in many ways extremely
valuable : it contains masses of citation and transla
tion from those oriental and other writers, who must
remain the principal sources of our knowledge for
the ancient eastern ritual : but on the subject of the
Coptic vestments he has produced a very quagmire
of inconsistent evidence. He neither attempts to
reconcile the conflicting statements of previous
writers, nor does he add on any single point the
testimony of one single fresh observer.

Having thus passed in review the several author
ities who have written about the sacred vestments
of the Church of Egypt, and having balanced one
authority against another, in order as far as possible
to reconcile their contradictions, we may conclude
this much for certain that there were at least seven
canonical vestments which may be fitly rendered by
the English equivalents dalmatic, amice, girdle, two
sleeves, stole, and chasuble. This list tallies almost
exactly with the number and name of the vestments
in usage at the present moment, although the modern
practice has become somewhat lax, and the full tale

' Cidaris . . de quo tamen varia nobis dubia occurrunt, vide-
turque nihil aliud esse nisi pilogion'(!) i.e. the amice. Ritus
Orientalium, ed. H. Denzinger, Wirceburgi, 1863 : torn. i. p. 130.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical 1/estments. 109

of vestments is not worn for ordinary celebrations,
but only on great festival occasions. Such dis
crepancies as exist between past and present custom
will be noticed in due order.

THE DALMATIC.

(Coptic m noTHpion, ni ctjerrrco, -f JUL^pun^. or

Arabic

In most of the eastern Churches the vestments
of the celebrant were required to be of white colour
in accordance with primitive custom 2. Thus Ibn al
f Assal quotes a canon of Basil that * vestments for
the celebration must be of white and white only,'
and the Imperial Canons similarly enjoin that * the
priestly vestments must reach down to the ankles
and be white, not coloured.' In both the passages
the principal reference is doubtless to the dalmatic,
which then as now was the most essential vestment
for the holy office, though in the West at any rate
the name ' alb,' connoting the prescribed colour,
seems more ancient than ' dalmatic/ The generic
name of course is tunic — alb being merely tunica
alba and dalmatic tunica dalmatica: and it is this
generic name which has survived in the term by
which the vestment is now denoted among the Copts
-tuniah. The name dalmatic is here retained

1 The Coptic name of the vestments is generally that given to
me by Abuna Philotheus, Kummus of the cathedral in Cairo, and
the most learned of the Copts in such matters. Where two or
more distinct names are given, all but the last are derived from
MS. authority. UOTHpIOIt is obviously from the Greek Tr

2 See Marriott, Vestiarium Christianum, Introd. chap. iv.

I 10

Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

as being perhaps the nearer of the two ; but it is
important to remember that the Coptic form of the
vestment does not accurately correspond to the
Latin form, but rather to the earlier colobion. The
dalmatic was a tunic with long full sleeves ; the
colobion had short close-fitting sleeves J : and the
colobion is said to have been abolished in favour of
the dalmatic by Sylvester, bishop of Rome, in the
time of Constantine 2. It is therefore interesting to

Fig. 20.— Embroidered Dalmatic.

find that Egypt, which never fell under the sway of a
Roman pontiff, retains to this day in the ministration
of the altar the form of tunic disused by the Latins
fifteen centuries ago. It will be seen that the
dalmatic figured in the illustration has rather a full
body but short close sleeves. It opens by a slit
along the left shoulder which is fastened by a loop
and button. The seams have no ritual meaning, but

1 So Marriott, p. Iv: yet the same author, p. in. n. 220, calls
the colobion ' a tunic without sleeves.'

2 Vest. Christ, p. Ivii.

i-H. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 1 1 1

probably denote that the vestment has been pieced,
where soiled or decayed, from some other dalmatic
in like condition but less valuable.

The embroidery upon this vestment corresponds
very closely in arrangement with the description
given by Abu Dakn. On the breast is a figure
of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Saviour on
her left arm : below this is a rude figure of Mari
Girgis slaying the dragon, and a dedicatory inscrip
tion in Arabic. On each sleeve is the figure of an
angel with outspread wings : a border enclosing
some beautiful crosses runs round the edge of the
sleeves, and a fine cross is also worked upon the
back of the vestment. Various soft colours are
blended together in this needlework, which is
wrought in fine stitches with silk, harmonising well
with the white or rather cream-yellow ground on
which it is embroidered. The ground is of linen,
and the yellow tinge is merely an accident of age.

The white short-sleeved dalmatic embroidered in
the manner set forth above is the principal vestment
worn at the celebration of the korban by the Coptic
clergy of to-day ; and the distinction between the
dalmatic as worn by the priest and the deacon
respectively is a distinction not of form but of
ornamentation. The priestly dalmatic has the figure
of the Virgin on the breast and of an angel on each
sleeve, embroidered in gold or silver or fine needle
work : while instead of Virgin and angels the deacon's
dalmatic has merely small coloured crosses.

At the time when the ordinary dalmatic was
decked with borders and crosses of costly jewels,
as recorded by Abu Dakn, the ground was often
of rich white silk as well as linen : and silk is

ii2 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

the material most commonly mentioned in ancient
writings. I have been unable to find any evidence,
pictorial or written, for the use in olden times by
the Copts of the dalmatic with stripes, or clavi, such
as are figured in the early mosaics of the West — for
instance at the church of S. Vitale at Ravenna — and
in early frescoes of the Greek Church. These
stripes descended one from each shoulder before
and behind : they were originally black, but in later
times, in the seventh century, were often purple :
and it was perhaps about the same period that the
sleeves began to be adorned with small stripes, which
were soon conventionalised into such a border as
survives now in the Coptic form of the vestment.

White then seems to have been the universal
colour for the dalmatic in the early ages of the
Church both eastern and western. White is the only
colour mentioned in the early Irish canons *, and in
this the British and Gallican practice probably
agreed with the Celtic. Yet towards the end of
the seventh century we find that St. Cuthbert was
buried in a purple dalmatic, although this may have
been in special attribution of kingly honour to that
saint, and does not necessarily imply the recognised
use of purple as an ecclesiastical colour : and in the
eighth century in Ireland albs are represented, as on
the shrine of St. Maedoc 2, with embroidered borders
or apparels. But in mediaeval times the use of
various colours in the vestments of the Latin Church
became systematic — special colours being set apart
for special seasons or festivals. In England it was
only after the Norman conquest that embroidered

1 Warren's Lit. and Rit. of the Celtic Church, p. 124.

2 Id. p. 114.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 113

and coloured dalmatics came into use *. For the
latter, I think, there is no clear authority in Coptic
liturgical history. That the Copts adorned their
dalmatics with the most gorgeous jewels and
embroidery, has been already shown : but I have
not seen in actual usage any such vestment made
of red, purple, or other coloured material. Coloured
dalmatics, however, abound in the paintings which
adorn the churches. Thus St. Michael in a picture
at Abu Sargah is robed in a crimson dalmatic tricked
with gold : the figures round the apse at Abu-'s-Sifain
wear alb and dalmatic both coloured : and the same
is true of the apostles on the iconostasis, and the
figures on the screen of the south chapel, at Al f Adra
Damshiriah. Red and green are the favourite colours.
In some of the embroidered dalmatics the work is
spread all over the ground in so lavish a manner as
almost to give the idea of a coloured vestment. An
example of a dalmatic, cream-coloured and covered
with small embroidered flowers, may be seen at the
church of St. Stephen in Cairo : another is figured
in the woodcut which represents St. Stephen, and is
taken from a painting at Abu Sargah done in the
fifteenth or sixteenth century. Here the vestment
has a white ground, but is almost entirely covered
with beautifully embroidered roses, each with a tiny
branch and foliage attached. It should be noticed,
moreover, that the dalmatic opens by a slit in the
front on the chest, and that the neck and the opening
are adorned with a rich orfrey, while another border
of jewelled work runs round the lower hem : the
cuffs also have their special embroidery. The sleeves
of this dalmatic are, as usual, close-fitting ; but it is

1 Rock, vol. ii. p. ico.
VOL. u. I

ii4 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

worth remarking that instead of being cut short they
cover the entire arm. It is very possible that the
custom was for deacons to wear the long-sleeved
dalmatic, while priests wore shorter sleeves by reason
of the fact that the epimanikia covered their fore-arm.
This distinction however does not seem to have been
observed in the ancient pillar-painting at Al Mu'al-
lakah, which is not later than the eighth century.
There the archbishop or patriarch who is figured
wears a fine dalmatic embroidered all over with
small circles, but the sleeves of the dalmatic reach
to the wrist ; unless indeed, as is possible from the
drawing, the sleeves do not belong to the dalmatic,
but are detached epimanikia, only made of the same
material as that vestment, and adorned with the like
embroidery.

One other example of the Coptic dalmatic deserves
special mention. At the church of Abu-'s-Sifain, on
the north side of the nave near the ambon, are two
paintings representing Gonstantine and Helena re
spectively. Each of these figures is vested alike,
and they have both the alb and the dalmatic. Here
the alb is long and rather loose, while the dalmatic
is not merely extremely short — reaching only a little
distance below the waist — but is further remarkable
for having two broad indentations in the lower hem,
making thus a sort of zigzag instead of an even line.
These indentations may perhaps remind one of the
side-slits usually figured in western dalmatics. There
can be no doubt of the ecclesiastical character of the
vestments : whether their pourtrayal is accurate, is
another question, to which unfortunately no answer
can be given. This much only is certain, that the
authorities make no mention of the two vestments as

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 115

distinguishable and capable of being worn together :
nor does present practice in any way confirm such a
distinction.

The tuniah of the Copts corresponds, as Renaudot
rightly remarks, to the sticharion (a-TLydpiw or O-TOL-
ydpi-ov) of the Greek Church, and indeed the very word
seems to be found in the full form cToi^x^piort and
in the mutilated crrnr^XAP1 m Coptic rubrics \

The vestment is described by the Greek patriarch
Germanus, perhaps the first of that name, early in
the eighth century, as follows 2 : — * The sticharion
being white signifieth the splendour of Godhead,
and the bright purity of life which becometh Chris
tian priests. The stripes of the sticharion upon the
wristband of the sleeve are significant of the bands
wherewith Christ was bound . . . the stripes across
the robe itself signify the blood which flowed from
Christ's side upon the cross/ The stripes here
referred to are probably the two shoulder-stripes
common also to the Roman dalmatic. Marriott
quotes :! a good example of these stripes in an
eastern vestment from the very ancient fresco at the
rock-cut church of Urgub, as mentioned by Texier
and Pullan : another good instance is the fresco at
Nekresi in Georgia, figured by Rohault de Fleury :
and examples abound in the East and West alike.
There is, however, a slightly different form of sti
charion worn by bishops, in which there are not two
but several vertical stripes 4. For this form, as for
the ordinary striped sticharion, no strict counterpart
exists in Coptic usage, although the Greeks have a

1 Denzinger, Rit. Or. torn. ii. pp. 40, 49.
2 Marriott, Vest. Christ, p. 85. 3 Id. xxxvii. note.

4 See the figure of St. Germanus in Marriott, pi. Iviii.
I 2

ii6 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.IV.

kind of sticharion without stripes, long-sleeved, and
sometimes covered with rich embroidery, which
answers to the Coptic dalmatic as worn by
deacons. Among the treasures of the orthodox
Alexandrian church of St. Nicholas at Cairo is a
splendid ancient sticharion of pale blue silk, almost
smothered with embroidered flowers and medallions
blent in a bold and beautiful design. The flowers
and the medallions, which enclose figures of saints,
are all marked out with tiny pearls strung close
together, which follow the lines of the pattern.
The dalmatic worn by the patriarch at great festi
vals to-day is woven of gold tissue. It agrees with
the much older vestment just described in being
quite open at the sides almost up to the arm, and in
having little bells attached.

Like the Copts and the Greeks, the Syrians also
used the white tunic — whether alb or dalmatic — as
a priestly vestment. Their term for it is kuttna,
derived, as Renaudot remarks J, from the Greek
•%iT&viov. But Renaudot is perhaps wrong in stating
that the Arabic tuntah is a mere corruption of this,
instead of connecting it with the independent Arabic
tun, ^o, or the Latin t^n^ua. The Syrians retained
the orthodox colour, white, though Renaudot speaks
also of dalmatics of other colours represented in
some rude miniatures of a Florentine MS.

Lastly, we find the same vestment, an alb of white
silk, in use at the present day among the Armenian
Christians, who call it the shapick 2. Thus all parts
of the Christian world unite in supporting the ancient
tradition that the ministers of the altar should be

1 Lit. Or. vol. ii. p. 54.

2 Fortescue's Armenian Church, p. 133.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. j 1 7

robed in a white tunic. But beyond the embroideries
already noticed, there seems no analogue in the
eastern Churches *for the square apparels which
formed a regular part of the adornment of the alb
in our western ritual.

THE AMICE.

(Coptic ru n£.Xm, ui &<O\Xm, ni Xoviort !, ru
e$OTT 2 : Arabic c*vJuJl *UiJl ^IxJovkJl 3.)

We have found Abu Dakn speaking of the amice
as a woollen, or more probably linen, ephod worn
about the head by priests and ' all who enter the
church/ I cannot help thinking that * church ' here
is a mistranslation for the Arabic ' haikal,' which,
literally signifying ' temple,' may have been rendered
' church ' by a translator ignorant of its technical
limitation to the ' holy of holies,' or sanctuary about
the altar. If the amice were worn merely as
part of an ordinary laic's church-going dress, Abu
Dakn would hardly have enumerated it in a list of
distinctively sacerdotal vestments. Vansleb more ex
plicitly describes the amice as a long band of white
linen, worn twisted round the head by priests and
deacons. I emphasise the latter point, because it
seems to bear out the idea of a mistranslation of

1 Notice that XoVIOIt or \6yiov is the word used by St. Jerome
and subsequent writers to denote the 'rational' or breastplate of th«
Levitical priesthood. (Marriott, Vest. Christ, p. 17.)

2 The name ecJ>OTT" is given in Peyron's Lexicon.

3 This orthography, which, of course, is correct, gives the right
English spelling tailasan, and not ' tilsan ' or ' teleisan/ as Renaudot
and Vansleb have it.

Il8 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

Abu Dakn, as suggested above. Deacons, of course,
do enter the haikal at certain parts of the celebra
tion : so that if we take Abu Dakn's statement to
be that the amice is worn by ' priests and all who
enter the haikal/ it will then tally almost exactly
with Vansleb. Lastly, the patriarch Gabriel men
tions white silk as the right material for the amice,
and Abu Saba simply records the vestment without
adding to our knowledge about it.

By putting together these small pieces of infor
mation, we shall arrive at the fact that the amice is
a long band or scarf of white silk or linen, worn
twisted round the head by priests and deacons.
This definition answers almost word for word with
the amice as worn by the Coptic clergy to-day : the
authorities, however, seem mistaken in allowing the
use of the amice to deacons, the truth being that it
is distinctly a sacerdotal vestment. In Arabic the
amice is called either shamlah and ballin indifferently :
but although the terms are in common speech quite
synonymous, yet str ctly speaking the two vestments
are distinct — distinct in colour and mode of usage,
though similar in point of shape. For the shamlah
is a long band of white linen embroidered with two
large crosses, and worn by priest and arch-priest or
kummus : while the ballin is made of grey or other
qoloured silk, embroidered with texts and many
crosses, and is worn by patriarch and bishops.
Again, the shamlah is twisted like a turban round
the head, and while one end hangs down the back
of the priest, the other is passed once round his face
under the chin, and then is fastened on the top of his
head : but the ballin is put on in quite a different
manner as follows. First, it is doubled and then

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments.

119

hung over the bishop's head from the middle, so
that the ends hang evenly in front ; each end is then
passed across the breast under the opposite arm, and
thence across the back over the opposite shoulder
and straight down under the girdle. It thus forms
a hood for the head as the shamlah does : but

Fig. 21.— Shamlah, hack and front view.

whereas the ballin is arranged crosswise both upon
the breast and back, the whole length of the shamlah
is used up in the hood or head-dress, leaving only
one end free which hangs down the middle of the
back. Upon this straight piece there shows an
embroidered figure of a cross, and a similar one is
visible over the crown of the head upon the hood.
The shamlah is usually of white linen or white

I2O Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

silk, and the crosses upon it are often embroidered
in gold. As a rule its length is about 8 ft. and
breadth i ft. : but a specimen in the writer's posses
sion measures no less than i6ft. 8 in. in length and
i ft. 4 in. in width ; the embroidered crosses, which are
3 ft. 4 in. and 2 ft. 6 in. respectively distant from the
nearest end, are worked, in red and yellow silk, and
have the Coptic sacred letters in the angles. There
is no fringe to the vestment, but each end is marked
off by a single red line of needlework.

The tailasdti, where distinct from the shamlah, is
merely a conventionalised form of the same orna
ment, and consists of a broad strip of linen or silk,
which hangs down the back and ends upwards in a
hood, instead of being twisted round the neck and
over the head, as the shamlah. It is only upon
special occasions, such as Good Friday, that the
patriarch wears the ballin, never during the celebra
tion of the mass. Metropolitans and bishops how7-
ever wear it during the mass, whenever they do not
wear the crown or mitre : outside their own dioceses
too, and at such times within their dioceses as the
patriarch happens to be present, they wear the
ballin : the use of the mitre being on such occasions
prohibited. It scarcely needs remarking that the
cope is seldom worn with the ballin.

The amice in ordinary use now is not adorned
with any magnificent orfrey, or apparel embroidered
with jewels and gold, such as was common in the
richer churches of the West. Yet in this as in every
particular there is reason to believe that the Coptic
ritual rivalled or even outrivalled the splendour
of our western services. In ancient Coptic pictures
however, and in modern alike, one searches vainly

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 121

for a single clear pourtrayal of the amice. Such an
example as that in the painting of Anba Shanudah
at the church of that name in old Cairo is perhaps
not to the purpose ; for the head-dress there is rather
a hood. Yet the vestment may be meant for the
tailasan ; and the amice is found represented as a
hood, though rarely, even in English monuments, as
on the effigy of a priest in the church of Towyn in
Merionethshire, and on an effigy in Beverley Minster1.
The more frequent form of the amice on western
tombs and brasses is a rich collar standing about the
neck : and for this there is a possible parallel in
Coptic usage. For what may be an amice in the
form of a richly embroidered collar is represented
on the neck of the patriarch in the very interesting
seal of the patriarchate of Alexandria, which will be
given in a woodcut below. And even if evidence
were wanting, we might be sure that at a time when
as a matter of course the dalmatic was adorned with
a wealth of precious stones, the amice did not fall
short of it in richness, whether its adornment was in
the form of orfreys or of jewelled crosses.

To what antiquity the use of the amice in the
Coptic Church ascends, is a question which I fear
cannot be answered. In the West the first mention
of it seems to be made early in the ninth century
by Rabanus Maurus. Originally it was a square or
oblong piece of linen fastened across the shoulders
and breast, and, like the Coptic vestment, it had
usually a large cross embroidered upon it-. It is

1 Bloxam's Ecclesiastical Vestments, p. 47 (eleventh edition).

2 See Chambers' Divine Worship in England, p. 34, and the
illustration there given of an amice once belonging to St, Thomas
of Canterbury.

122 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

not till the twelfth century that we hear of the amice
being worn over the head, and it was then regarded
as an emblem of the helmet of salvation, according
to Durandus. When so worn veiling the head, the
amice was nevertheless lowered on to the chasuble
at the moment of consecration. A sort of amice,
though sometimes called a fanon, was worn over the
head by the pope when celebrating mass, and the
same ornament was used instead of the mitre on
Holy Thursday, when the pope performed the
ceremony of feet-washing.

The rational, though not the amice, is mentioned
among the ancient ornaments of the Celtic bishops1 :
but it is quite possible that the amice too may have
existed at an earlier date than is generally assigned
to it, though from its natural association with the
rational no separate early mention of it is clearly
recorded. Yet no such vestment as the amice seems
known in the practice of the Greek Church, although
there the rational survives in a breastplate of gold or
silver, worn over the chasuble by patriarchs and
metropolitans, and called the Kepio-Tr/Giov 2. On the
other hand, the amice or varkass is still worn by the
Armenian clergy, amongst whom it is small with a
stiff collar, as described above, and sometimes has
attached to it a breastplate of precious metal. The
amice without a rational is also a familiar vestment
in the Syrian Jacobite and in the Maronite Churches,
where it is one of the ornaments with which a
bishop is attired at ordination, as may be seen in the
rubrics 3.

1 Warren's Lit. and Rit. of Celtic Ch. p. 1 13. 2 Id. p. 114.
3 Denzinger, Rit. Or. torn. ii. pp. 93, 157.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 123

Seeing then that not merely the Coptic but also
the Maronite, Syrian, and Armenian Churches still
recognise the amice as a priestly vestment, and that
it has in all cases at least a respectable antiquity,
even if it does not ascend to the first few centuries
of our era, we may feel some surprise that ecclesio-
logists from Renaudot to Marriott should deny its
existence as an eastern vestment. Renaudot has
already been refuted above out of his own lips :
Marriott rightly says ' there is no corresponding
vestment in the Greek Church,' but quotes with
approval the far more sweeping statement of M.
Victor Gay1 : ' Les Orientaux plus stricts observa-
teurs des traditions du costume primitive ne 1'ont
jamais adopte.' Even Neale, while admitting the
existence of the Armenian amice, remarks that it ' is
unknown in any other part of the eastern Church,
and seems to be adopted from the Latin amice2;'
thus sealing afresh the error.

It. is precisely because the orientals are so conser
vative in their practice, and because the Copts are
perhaps more conservative than all other orientals,
that the Coptic use of the amice constitutes a strong
argument for the high antiquity of that vestment. In
default of direct evidence, the date of its adoption in
the church of Egypt can only be matter of con
jecture : but I think it far more likely that it origi
nated there, where the heat of the climate would soon
make the necessity felt of such a protection for the
neck. Again, it is not less but more natural that the
close association of the amice with the Levitical
ephod or breastplate should have arisen in the

1 Vest. Christ, p. 212 n.

2 Eastern Church, Gen. tntrod. vol. i. p. 306.

124 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

East, an association stamped on the very name of
the Coptic vestment.

On the whole, then, not only is the statement quite
untenable that the amice is unknown in the eastern
Churches, but a balance of probabilities seems to
show rather that it first arose in the East and passed
over to the West, than that it came as a fresh gift
from the ritual of Rome to the ritual of Alexandria.

THE GIRDL.E.
(Coptic m ^o-rn^pion, m oTit^pion : Arabic

Though the penal use of the girdle as a secular
distinction of dress between Christian and Muslim
in Egypt has long since passed away, yet to this
day Christian and Muslim alike wear it for the
sake of convenience, and afford a living illustra
tion of the manner in which it was worn in the
most ancient times, before it was adopted as a
sacred vestment of the Church. For, as in the
ministration of the Church the girdle is worn over
the alb or dalmatic, so in daily life at Cairo now it is
worn by prosperous merchants or venerable sheikhs
to confine a robe which only differs from the dalmatic
in being open down the front. The analogy between
the two sets of vestments is so striking to view, and
so well founded in fact, that one cannot understand
how it should have received so little recognition from

[ This word, ' zinndr,' and the two Coptic terms are obviously
alike derived from the Greek

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 125

ecclesiologists. Much labour and ingenuity have
been spent in deriving the various forms of ecclesi
astical vestments from styles of classical costume
recorded in literary or sculptured monuments : while
oriental costume has been quite neglected, although
the early Christians, like the Jews, were mostly
orientals, and eastern dress is much the same to-day
as it was two thousand years ago. A well-dressed
Arab from the bazaars of Cairo is a better illustra
tion of the origin of Christian vestments than all the
sculptures of Athens and Rome.

As the burnus or chasuble of the Copts is the
burnus or overall cloak of the Egyptian Arab ; and
as the dalmatic or c ami si a is the long robe worn
underneath by the Arabs and called kamis ; so the
sacred girdle is the native mantakah or hazam, i. e.
belt or sash ; and the amice has its analogue in the
well-known kafflah. Like most of the priestly vest
ments, however, the girdle is only worn to-day on
great ceremonial occasions, and not as part of the
ordinary ministering dress for the altar. The dal
matic is always worn for the celebration of the
korban, and generally amice and stole are worn also :
but the rest of the canonical vestments, though
retained by the Church and used for high festivals,
are not now considered essential for the holy office.
An ancient and very beautiful example of a girdle of
crimson velvet with clasps of niello silver exists, and
has already been described in the account of the
church of Abu Kir wa Yuhanna at Old Cairo : it
probably dates from the sixteenth century. That
worn by the present patriarch is of yellow silk, and is
fastened by large pear-shaped clasps of filigree silver-
work set with precious stones.

126 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

The use of the girdle as a sacred vestment is not
distinguishable from the use of the other vestments
in point of antiquity. There is no reason whatever
for considering it a later addition, or anything but
the natural companion of the dalmatic. It is clearly
figured in the pillar-painting at Al Mu'allakah already
mentioned ; which, whether it belong to the eighth
century or to an earlier epoch, certainly represents
an ecclesiastical costume of a fixed and developed
not of a rudimentary character. In this painting the
girdle is not a mere loose sash, but a belt with
embroidered edges and with a clasp, thus closely
resembling the girdle at Abu Kfr wa Yuhanna. It
seems then reasonable to infer that at the time when
this fresco was painted, the girdle was already a
thoroughly familiar and thoroughly conventionalised
vestment, and consequently that the use of the girdle
in the Coptic Church is more ancient than in the
Churches of western Christendom.

This idea is further borne out by the fact that
the first clear mention of the girdle as a sacerdotal
ornament is made in the eighth century by St.
Germanus of Constantinople, — an eastern and not
a western writer. Nearly a century later it is
found in the western catalogue of vestments given
by Rabanus Maurus : and from that time forward
allusions to it are frequent. The girdle was often
of great magnificence, being made of the most costly
gold embroidery, and studded with precious jewels.
In the Latin Church to-day it is still used by bishops,
but is sometimes a mere cord with dangling tassels.
Goar mentions it as among the vestments of the
Greek patriarch, but not as belonging to other
orders. In the Armenian Church it is a part of

CH.IV.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 127

the regular ministering dress of priests, and is worn
over the stole. The Armenian name for it is kodi.
The Syrian priesthood also wear a girdle, resembling
the Coptic in form, and fastened by clasps : and in
the Maronite Church the priest at ordination is girt
with a girdle, which thenceforth becomes one of his
regular vestments for the celebration. Among the
Nestorians also the girdle still lingers, and is called
by the same name as among the Syrians, zunndra1,
obviously a reminiscence of the Greek favapiw. We
may say, therefore, that the girdle is universally
recognised in the eastern Churches as part of the
liturgical costume.

THE STOLE.
(Coptic ni uop^pion, ui cx°P^toK : Arabic

All the authorities which are cited above for the
Coptic vestments go wrong together in failing to
distinguish the ordinary stole from the patriarchal
pallium or pall, and in failing even to notice the
existence of the latter. Yet neither its existence,
nor its difference from the stole, nor its antiquity,
can be called in question for a moment, as will be
shown in the sequel. Here I have merely raised
the point in order to reserve it, because it is one
that should be remembered from the outset, although
we are chiefly concerned at present with the sacred
dress of the priesthood.

1 G. P. Badger, The Nestorians and their Rituals, vol. i. p. 225.

128 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

But, leaving aside the pall, the authorities entirely
omit the fact that the priestly stole has two forms
quite unlike each other ; and, worse still, granting
that the Copts do wear a stole, by a strange con
spiracy of silence they leave the reader to shape it
out of his imagination. Abu Dakn is made by his
translators to remark that it is worn only by ' ponti-
fices,' i.e. 'bishops.' Doubtless 'pontifices' should
be rendered 'celebrants;' but it is hard to see how
any credit given for mistranslation can redeem the
original statement from mere error. Vansleb and
Gabriel say nothing at all ; while Abu Saba notes
that the stole or tTrirpciiyj\\iov is ' worn from the neck
by the priest/ — an observation which is true as far
as it goes, but not a brilliantly clear account of the
whole matter. Renaudot makes no effort to illu
mine the darkness. This is a good sample of the
amount of information to be derived from previous
writers on Coptic subjects, and of the ignorance
which prevails even now amongst more recent eccle-
siologists.

I have said that there are two forms of the stole.
Both these forms, as well as the patriarchal pall, are
called by the generic name ' patrashil,' an Arabic
corruption for the Greek kTriTpayj\\iw : and both
seem called in Coptic by the same name uop^piort.
While, however, the pall has also its own distinc
tive term, the two kinds of stole do not seem to be
distinguished in name ; and this fact has doubtless
given rise to a confusion and perplexity which partly
accounts for the silence of the authorities. Of the
two forms, one corresponds to the Greek tTTirpayri-
Aioi/, or TrepirpayjiXiov as it was also called ; the other
approaches nearer to the Greek <*>papiw and to the

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 129

stole of western usage. For the sake of clearness,
in the following pages I shall use the name epitra
chelion, or the kindred ' patrashil,' to denote the
former shape exclusively, and reserve the familiar
* stole ' for the latter.

i. The epitrachelion proper consists of a single
band or scarf about 9 in. broad and 6 ft. in length ;
the upper end is divided by an opening through
which the head passes, so that the vestment hangs
down the middle of the dalmatic in front. From
the neck downwards the epitrachelion is embroi
dered either with gorgeous crosses, or with the
figures of the twelve apostles in six pairs, one pair
above another; and the dedicatory inscription is
often woven above this adornment. Some idea of
the splendour of this vestment in bygone times may
be formed from the illustration, which represents a
patrashil of crimson velvet woven with silver em
broidery, which belongs to the church of Abu Kir
wa Yuhanna. Even now the patrashil is often of
great magnificence; sometimes it is nearly i8in.
wide. Blue silk, ornamented with richly coloured
crosses, scrolls or figures, is a common material.
But it is worth remarking that the patrashil without
figures is called by a separate name — sudr. A
glance will show the origin of the present form of
the vestment. It is quite clear that originally the
epitrachelion passed, like the western sacerdotal
stole, once round the back of the neck and hung
in front over both shoulders. The two pendants
were subsequently brought together, and fastened
close from the collar downwards by loops and
buttons ; and finally, as this usage was established,
the epitrachelion was made of a single broad piece

VOL. II. K

Fig. 2-2.— Patrashil of Crimson Velvet embroidered with Silver.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 131

with an opening for the head. And the conscious
ness of this origin is still sometimes betrayed by
the arrangement of the embroidery : for the lines
down the centre of the vestment in the woodcut
preserve the idea of two bands joined together,
though in reality there is no seam in the material.
On the other hand the epitrachelion as worn by
Constantine in the painting at Abu-'s-Sifain shows
under the short chasuble no indication of a
vertical division ; it is rather narrow, and has
three crosses embroidered and divided off by
horizontal lines ; it has also a fringe which is
not often found on the epitrachelion. After the
foregoing explanation of the origin of the patrashil,
it scarcely needs remarking that the vestment in
this form belongs solely to priests and bishops, who
of course wore the unconnected stole over both
shoulders, in contradistinction to deacons, who wore
it only over the left shoulder. Precisely the same
vestment with the same name, the same shape and
origin, and the same limits of usage, is found in
the Greek Church. An example is given by Mar
riott in an illustration1; but that author does not
give any clear account of the matter, nor state
whether the epitrachelion figured is made of a
single straight piece, or is joined by a seam or by
fastenings down the middle. In another plate2 St.
Sampson and St. Methodius are represented as
wearing the single united epitrachelion : yet Mar
riott remarks that * the ends of the peritrachelion . . .
are seen pendant/ implying that there are two ends
capable of separation ; and in the same plate the

1 Vest. Christ, pi. Ivi. 2 Id. pi. Ivii.

K 2

132 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. \\.

vestment, as worn by St. Germanus, is parted and
stands asunder the whole way down without any
sign of union. It might seem probable, therefore,
that the Greeks only attach the two edges of the
stole together loosely to form the epitrachelion, and
that they have not gone a step further with the
Copts and abolished the central joining.

Yet the learned writer in the Dictionary of Chris
tian Antiquities1 speaks confidently of the Greek
form as having ' a hole for the head to pass through '
and 'a seam down the middle;' so that it would
only differ from the Coptic shape in actually retain
ing the seam, instead of merely indicating it by an
embroidered ornament. Moreover, Neale's account
of the epitrachelion is exactly similar 2. The ortho
dox Alexandrian church of St. Nicholas at Cairo
possesses several ancient and extremely beautiful
specimens of the epitrachelion richly worked with
gold embroidery. I saw one with a blue ground,
two with yellow, one crimson, and one crimson and
-green. All are of silk ; all have the figures of
apostles or saints inwrought, except one, which is
covered with a design of crosses ; and most, though
not all, have a fringe at the bottom. From these
examples it is obvious that the closure in front is
a matter of indifference with the Melkites ; for in
some cases the closure is so complete that the vest
ment has merely a seam down the middle ; even
this seam has quite vanished in some modern speci
mens, which are made of a single piece of stuff

1 Diet. Christ. Ant. s. v. Stole.

2 Eastern Church : Gen. Introd. vol. i. p. 308 : see also the
illustration there given.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 133

covered with a large branching design ; while in
other cases the central division is left entirely open.
I may add that some of these epitrachelia are
adorned with tiny bells.

The close correspondence in the shape and usage
of the Greek and Coptic form of the vestment war
rants, I think, the inference that the epitrachelion
had been adopted and settled as part of the sacer
dotal dress before the rupture between the Jacobite
and Melkite factions in the Church. At that time
the vestments of the Constantinopolitan Greeks and
of the Alexandrians would be one and the same ;
but it is in the last degree unlikely either that the
Greeks should have subsequently borrowed the
patrashil from the Jacobites, — a supposition refuted
by the very name, — or on the other hand that the
Jacobites should have been beholden to the despised
and detested Melkites.

This theory will, of course, give the epitrachelion
a much higher antiquity than can be claimed for
the corresponding vestment, the stole of the western
Churches ; and being such, it only falls in with and
strengthens my general contention, that the forms
of the ecclesiastical vestments were fixed, and defi
nitely consecrated to the service of the Church, at
a much earlier period in the East than in the West,
and possibly earliest of all in the Church of Alex
andria. At the same time it is not of course denied
that the epitrachelion, however ancient, is only a
secondary developed form of the original stole or
orarion.

Before quitting this part of the subject, it may
be mentioned that the form of the epitrachelion is
expressly defined in the rubric for the ordination of

134 Ancient Coptic Chiirches. [CH. iv.

a bishop1 as given by Renaudot. It is there laid
down that the vestment must be of silk, and must
be embroidered with the figure of the Saviour and
of the disciples. Yet there is nothing to show that
this special form of adornment belonged to bishops
only, or that the epitrachelion decked with crosses
was given specially to priests. Other communities
which use this form of ornament, besides the Greeks,
are the Malabar2 Christians ; the Armenians3, among
whom it is called pour-ourar — obviously a remi
niscence of orarion — and is described as a costly
brocade of silk studded with jewels ; and possibly
the Maronites.

2. The orarion or common stole seems only dis
tinguishable from the epitrachelion by a convention ;
for in the rubrics orarion is found even for the stole
as worn by the patriarch4, which is undoubtedly the
patrashil. The word oroA?) is of frequent occurrence
in Graeco-Coptic pontificals, but never in the sense
of 'stole;' it always means 'dress' or 'vestments,'
a sense which did not give place to the technical
'stole' until the ninth century even in western
Christendom ; where it is first clearly identified with
the orarion by Rabanus Maurus about 820 A. D. Into
the hopeless controversy concerning the etymology
of the word orarion I do not propose to enter : I shall,
however, for the present decline to believe that either

1 Denzinger, Rit. Or. torn. ii. p. 28.

2 Howard, Christians of St. Thomas, p. 133.

3 Fortescue, Armenian Church, p. 133.

4 Denzinger, Rit. Or. torn. ii. p. 49. Marriott is therefore wrong
in saying that the orarion is only used of the deacon's stole, not of
the corresponding vestment as worn by priests. See Vest. Christ,
p. 84, note 144.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 135

the vestment or its name was originally Latin. The
adoption of a Roman vestment by the eastern
Churches would be a process against all analogy ;
and the name orarion is found in the East just two
hundred years before it is mentioned in the West.
The canons of the Council of Laodicea, about
363 A. D., forbade the orarion to orders below the
diaconate ; whereas in western history it is not till
the second Council of Braga in Spain that the
orarion is mentioned, and deacons are commanded
to wear it plainly showing on the left shoulder, and
not under the dalmatic. This council was held in
the year 563 A.D.

The orarion is, of course, older in point of usage
than the epitrachelion ; but there seems some reason
to think that, even after the priestly manner of wear
ing the orarion over both shoulders had given rise
to the epitrachelion as a distinct vestment, the orarion
still continued to be used by the Coptic priesthood
side by side with the epitrachelion. The latter was
required to be an ornament of some splendour ;
and in the poorer churches it would of course be
much more easy to provide a plain band or scarf
of linen, embroidered with crosses, to be worn
over both shoulders. It is then very possible that
the co-existence of the two methods of wearing
the stole permissible to priests may have caused
the names to be used almost interchangeably.
For as the patrashil was styled orarion in the
rubric quoted above, so undoubtedly the orarion
as worn by priests is called patrashil at the present
day.

The prohibition of the Council of Laodicea seems
never to have affected the Church of Alexandria ;

136 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.IV.

for in the Tukian1 Pontifical there is a rubric direct
ing the investiture of the subdeacon with the orarion
at ordination. Similarly the subdeacon2 among the
Syrians, and even the reader3 among the Maronites,
at ordination receives the orarion. In most of these
cases the stole is worn over the left shoulder only,
in the manner prescribed for deacons ; but in the
Maronite Church the practice is somewhat different.
There the reader at ordination has a folded orarion
laid across his extended arms, the subdeacon has
it placed about his neck — presumably with the ends
hanging behind4, — while the deacon has it taken
from the neck and put upon the left shoulder. There
can be no doubt that originally the orarion was worn
by deacons hanging free before and behind ; so that
the Coptic practice agreed with that of the Greek
and Latin Churches. In the West this arrangement
was found inconvenient, and one end of the stole
was fastened at the right hip for greater security.
The same difficulty gave rise to various ways of
wearing the orarion in Egypt, some no doubt formal
and legal, others fanciful or haphazard, setting all
customs and canons at defiance, like the lax and
slovenly usage of the present century. In the figure
of St. Stephen already referred to, the intention of
the stole hanging over the left shoulder in front is
conspicuous ; but instead of hanging loose behind,
the stole passes close under the left arm, downwards
across the breast to the right hip, round the back,
and from the left hip upwards to the right shoulder,
over which the end hangs behind. From the care

1 Denzinger, Rit. Or. torn. ii. p. 6.

2 Id. ib. p. 82. 3 Id. ib. p. 1 1 8.

4 Id. ib. pp. 229 and 233 : but the rubric is obscure.

. iv.]

Ecclesiastical Vestments.

137

bestowed on this picture, the splendour of the vest
ments, and the universal recognition of St. Stephen as
a typical deacon, it is probable that this way of wear
ing the orarion was habitual and lawful. It will, of
course, be noticed that the stole is really crossed
upon the breast, and that this fashion of wearing
the vestment requires it to be of much greater
length than the Latin stole. Very possibly it repre
sents a special arrangement of the stole previous to

Fig. 23. — St. Stephen : from a painting at Abu Sargah.

communicating, such as Goar1 tells us was usual in
the Greek Church ; for a Greek deacon, when about
to receive, so altered the orarion that it formed a
cross on both breast and back, and a sort of girdle
round the waist. This custom of changing the
orarion may perhaps also account for the fashion
of the Coptic stole as worn by subdeacons — a
fashion which will be described presently. Yet

1 Euchologion, p. 146 : see also illustrations, p. 147.

138 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

sometimes the deacon's stole is represented as worn
in the ordinary way, merely placed upon the left
shoulder : St. Stephen himself, for instance, is de
picted so wearing it in a painting on the choir walls
of the church of Abu-'s-Sifain. Yet a third fashion
is shown in a third picture of the same saint at the
church called after him adjoining the cathedral in
Cairo. Here one end is seen hanging behind the
right shoulder, over which the stole passes ; hence it
falls in front straight down the right side to the hip ;
there it loops, and passes diagonally across the chest,
under the left arm, and out over the left shoulder.
The end which thus hangs from the left shoulder in
front is carried in the left hand as a maniple. Curious
as these three fashions seem, the last is distinctly
recognised at the present day as the right way of
wearing the orarion for archdeacons. A somewhat
similar practice obtains in the orthodox Alexandrian
Church of Egypt, where the deacon carries in his left
hand one end of the stole, which hangs over the left
shoulder before and behind ; while the archdeacon
wears it crossing the breast from the left shoulder
to the right side. The choristers and subdeacons
of the Coptic Church at the present day wear the
orarion in a peculiar manner. The centre part of the
stole is placed on the waist in front forming a sort
of girdle ; the ends are then drawn behind, crossed
over the back, and brought one over each shoulder
to the front, where they fall straight down and pass
under the portion which girds the waist1. The
orarion thus worn forms a sort of H in front and

1 It appears that the name^ltjJl, which applies properly to the
girdle, is sometimes used to denote the deacon's stole as thus worn.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 139

X at the back, and recalls, half in resemblance and
half in contrast, the stole as worn, not by deacons
but by priests, in our own Church before the
reformation.

The priestly stole in the West passed from the
back of the neck over both shoulders, was crossed
upon the breast, and confined at the waist by the
girdle. Owing to the fact that in most monuments
the chasuble hides this particular arrangement, so
that nothing more is seen of the stole but the ends
depending, clear illustrations are somewhat uncom
mon. There is, however, a good brass in Horsham
Church, Sussex1, in which the crossed stole is visible ;
it may be seen also in a window painting represent
ing the marriage of Henry VI. with Margaret of
Anjou, now in the east window of the Bodleian
Library at Oxford. Viollet-le-Duc gives a good
illustration of the crossed stole from a twelfth cen
tury MS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale2; and the
same arrangement is figured in Rock's Church of
our Fathers 3. Perhaps the first clear ordinance on
the subject is that issued by the third Council of
Braga, enjoining that every priest at the altar
should wear the stole of even length over each
shoulder, and should pass it crosswise over the
breast.

The Coptic practice then of wearing the orarion
as both girdle and stole is not very different from
this western custom, though obviously it demands
a scarf of greater length. But I may repeat that
neither priests, nor even deacons, among the Copts

1 Figured in Waller's Monumental Brasses.

2 Mobilier, vol. iii. p. 375.

3 Vol. ii. p. 89. See also vol. i. p. 421.

140 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

now wear the stole in this manner, but only sub-
deacons and inferior orders ; while the priests in ordi
nary celebrations at the present day are distinguished
by the arrangement of the amice described above,
without either epitrachelion or orarion. The stoles
of the subdeacons are narrow in shape, and usually
made of silk or other rich materials ; they are of
various hues, — purple, yellow, red, and green, —
usually having three or four colours side by side
in longitudinal bands ; and they are adorned not
only with crosses but also with flowers finely em
broidered. In ancient times the deacon's orarion
too, like the epitrachelion, was made of silk or cloth
of gold, and set with jewels, just as in the West
the original white linen gave place to more showy
and costly materials ; for by the ninth century
stoles of various colours, and decked with gold,
were familiar in the churches of Spain, Gaul, and
Italy1.

Many magnificent examples of mediaeval stoles
are still extant, some of the best being in the South
Kensington Museum. One of Sicilian work, dating
from the thirteenth century, is described as being ' of
gold tissue profusely decorated with birds, beasts,
and Roman letters and floriated ornaments : ' while
another of Italian make, fifteenth century, is of
' deep purple silk brocaded in gold and crimson with
flowers 2.' Old inventories too abound with such
descriptions.

The Syrians use the stole, which they call iworo,
a corrupted form of orarion, which adds its evidence

1 Marriott, Vest. Christ, pp. 215-6.

2 Chambers' Divine Worship in England, p. 51.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 141

in favour of the eastern origin of the word. Ap
parently the same ornament is used both for priests
and deacons, though the rubrics given by Morinus
are not very lucid. In ordaining a deacon the
bishop ' accipit orarium et circumfert circum caput,'
and then subsequently lays the stole upon the left
shoulder J. In the case of a priest the bishop ' accipit
orarium quod super ipsum positum est et traducit
illud super humerum eius dexterum a parte anterioriV
It is clear that the deacon wears the stole upon the
left and the priest upon the right shoulder : and the
second rubric seems to imply that the priest wears
it upon both shoulders. The action of the bishop
is doubtless as follows : the candidate for the priest
hood being vested as deacon, with the orarion hang
ing loose over the left shoulder before and behind,
the bishop takes the end which hangs at the back,
and brings it round (traducit) over the right shoulder.
When the action is complete, the stole would show
both ends in front, one hanging over each shoulder.
So far the process tallies with that described in all
the English pontificals. But upon the question
whether the bishop crosses the stole upon the breast
of the priest after bringing it round the neck, the
Syrian rubric is silent. It seems fairer to conclude
that the stole was not crossed ; and this conclusion
seems borne out by Asseman, who describes it as
' hanging from the neck before the breast on either
side V The Syrian stoles in the miniatures of the
Florentine MS. cited by Renaudot4 are either divided
by bands of embroidery, or else adorned with small

J Denzinger, Rit. Or. torn. ii. p. 70. 2 Id. ib. p. 73.

3 Bibl. Orient^ torn. iii. pt, ii. p. 819.

4 Lit, Or, torn, ii. p, 54 seq.

142 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.IV.

coloured crosses ; but the bishop's stole is always of
the latter kind. Renaudot says nothing about the
epitrachelion, for the use of which by the Syrians
there seems to be no evidence : and Neale is there
fore wrong in identifying the uroro with the epi
trachelion on Renaudot's authority *.

The deacon's stole in the Armenian Church is
worn in the orthodox manner, and is called ossorah
—possibly another corruption of orarion. We have
already noticed the survival of the term in pour-
ourar, the Armenian designation of the epitrache
lion : but there is no law or limit to the forms which
a classical word may take in passing into an oriental
language. The Armenian stole is generally plain,
unlike the Greek, which is embroidered with the
trisagion or the word AT IOC thrice repeated.

The Nestorian clergy, both priests and deacons,
recognise precisely the same usage of the orarion as
the Syrians. There is however this difference as
regards subdeacons, that in the Syrian Church the
subdeacon wears the orarion hanging from the left
shoulder as well as round the neck : whereas in the
Nestorian ordination service for a deacon, the dis
tinction of the two orders is made by the removal
of the stole from around the neck of the subdeacon,
and the placing of it upon the left shoulder. But
it is far from clear in what manner in either case
the subdeacon wore the orarion ' about the neck,'
whether it was twisted round and round, as seems
most probable, or whether it hung behind 2. The

1 Eastern Church : Gen. Introd. vol. i. p. 308.

! The rubric for the Syrian ordination of subdeacon, as given by
Renaudot, is as follows : ' Episcopus . . . circumdat orarium collo ejus
demittitque super humerum ejus sinistrum/ In the corresponding

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 143

Nestorian name for the stole, hurrdra x, agrees with
the Syrian name in its descent from the Greek term

THE PALL.
(Coptic HI U3juio4>opion, m n^.XXm : Arabic

Renaudot in his account of the Coptic vestments
ignores, as was remarked above, the very existence
of any ornament corresponding to the archiepiscopal
pall of western usage, or the Greek omophorion.
Yet not only is the pall represented in the earliest
Christian frescoes of Egypt and in many pictures,
but Renaudot himself gives rubrics which mention
it in the office for the ordination of the patriarch of
Alexandria. Nevertheless it is extremely difficult,
if not impossible, to understand the various rubrics
which relate to the investiture of the patriarch, or
to reconcile the apparent repetitions and inconsis
tencies in a single version of the office. Much of
this confusion is doubtless due to mistranslation,
which might be removed by careful study of the
originals ; but these unfortunately are inaccessible.
Abu '1 Birkat mentions only three vestments —
dalmatic, omophorion, and chasuble (couclo sive

Nestorian rite, as given by the younger Asseman, the rubric runs
thus : ' Orarium accipit eoque collum ejus circumdat : ' while in
the case of deacons it is ' turn tollit orarium de collo eorum/ i. e.
which they wore as subdeacons, 'et ponit illud super humerum
sinistrum.'

1 G. P. Badger, Nestorians and their Rituals, vol. i. p. 225.

144 Ancient Coptic CJmrches. [CH. iv.

casula) ; the list is correct as far as it goes but
obviously deficient, According to the Tukian
Pontifical1, when the patriarch elect first approaches
the altar at the beginning of the ordination service,
he is vested in dalmatic and amice only, or as they
seem to be termed in the original crrrx/Lpiort
and Xemriort. There follows a long ceremony,
until the prayer of invocation is. reached, which
contains these words, ' Clothe him with the alb '
(podere, noTHpiori) ' of thine own holy glory : lay
the mitre upon his head, and anoint him with the oil
of gladness/ After the proclamation, the senior
bishop arrays the patriarch elect in dalmatic, stole,
and chasuble (crroi;x>^P*oK> cup<Lpion, cJ>eXonion).
Then came the decree of the synod and several
more prayers : after which ' princeps episcopus induit
e2tm omophorio (coJULOc^opiort) symboli2 (cYJUL&oXort)

1 Ap. Denzinger, Rit. Or. torn. ii. p. 40 seq.

2 Sic. I can only conjecture that ' symbolo ' should be read, and
that it refers to what follows, viz., linteum. The rubric will then
run omophorio et symbolo, etc., and the meaning as follows : * Vests
him with the pall ; and with the sign of the apostolic gift which is
the amice hanging from the head ; and with the epicheri upon his
shoulder.' The words of Greek origin in these rubrics are given
as they occur; and though Denzinger prints them in Greek
characters, I have thought it better to give the original Coptic.
What the epicheri may be. is quite uncertain. Denzinger quotes
an opinion that it seems to be a sort of veil hanging over the hand,
i. e. presumably a maniple, an opinion obviously based on the
supposed etymology of the word, but supported by no external
evidence whatever. There is nothing corresponding to the maniple
in Coptic ritual, nor even to the Greek cyxciptop: moreover the
rubric in both cases expressly states that the epicheri is worn over
the shoulder, which is not a likely place for the maniple. Nor is
the maniple likely to be distinctive of the patriarch.

I can offer no suggestion except the following. In the 'Sy statical

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 145

doni (2^U)pe<L) apostolici (^.ruxrroXiKon) quod est
linteum (Xervriort) a capite eiiis dependens, et epicheri
(em^epi) super humerum ems.' The language of
this rubric, marvellous as it seems, is surpassed by
the next : * Et cum indutus est ($opem) omni habitu
archisacerdotali (^.p^iep^TTiKort) : morphotacio
(jULOpc£>crr£.Kiort) et phelonio (4>eXomort) et pha-
cialio (4>£ja<LXiort) quod a capite eius dependet,
omophorio (u5JULoc£>opiort) i.e. morphorin (jutop-
$opm) habitus (cToXn) et epicheri (eni^epi)
super humerum eius,' &c. The absurdities of the
various foregoing rubrics scarcely need pointing
out. First, the patriarch is robed in dalmatic and
amice : the mitre is mentioned in the prayer of
invocation, but the rubrics contain no hint of such
an ornament : next, the patriarch is invested with

Letter' or decree of the synod, read by the deacon from the
ambon or pulpit, setting forth, amongst other matters, the duties of
the patriarch, it is expressly mentioned that he is to perform the
office of feet-washing on Maundy Thursday. For this office a
towel would be used, doubtless of fine embroidery ; and I think it
very possible that epicheri may mean a towel (cf. Lat. mantile, Germ.
handlucH). Such a towel, gorgeously woven with silver or gold,
may well have been laid upon the patriarch's shoulder at his ordi
nation, in token of this special duty of feet- washing, to which it is
clear the Church attached great importance. Such an explanation
removes all difficulties, but cannot claim to be more than a conjec
ture. The epicheri then would not be a regular vestment, corre
sponding to the Latin maniple, and worn by all orders : nor would
it even be part of the patriarch's pontifical apparel : but merely a
special symbol worn but once on the occasion of his ordination.
The natural place for such a towel would be the shoulder.

It will be noticed that Denzinger's translation, as far as it has any
sense at all, makes the omophorion the same as the linteum : but
the rubric so running refutes itself, for the pall would in no wise be
described as ' hanging down from the head.' Vide Rit. Or. torn. ii.
PP- 56, 57-

VOL. II. L

146 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

dalmatic, stole and chasuble : thirdly, with pall,
amice, and the mysterious epicheri. Then, after
twice putting on the dalmatic, twice the amice,
besides stole, chasuble, and pall, he comes out
arrayed in the dress of an archpriest, to wit, chas
uble, pall, ' morphotacion,' ' phacialion,' and ' epi
cheri ' I Truly a wonderful metamorphosis : and
it must be a strange kind of a figure which the
patriarch presents, when at last he is apparelled
in full pontificals.

Renaudot's account of the matter is simpler, but
by no means free from perplexity. At the com
mencement of the service the new patriarch wears
dalmatic and amice. Renaudot here translates
Xeirriort by 'mantile, instead of by linteum as
Denzinger1 renders it, and is rightly thinking of
the amice ; whereas Denzinger in another place 2
applies the term linteum to the archiepiscopal pall
— ' Est autem omophorium linteum sive species
quaedam stolae similis pallio.' The truth is that
amice and pall are as inextricably confused in
language as in usage.

As regards the second process in the investiture,
Renaudot agrees with the Tukian Pontifical
that the patriarch is robed in dalmatic, stole, and
chasuble.

The third process is far more intelligible in
Renaudot. It is as follows : ' Then the chief bishop
places on him over his head the omophorion which
is the mark of his rank, and it shall hang in such a
way as to fall over the breast/ And instead of all
the barbarous jargon that ensues in the Tukian

1 Tom. ii. p. 40. 2 Tom. i. p. 130.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 147

Pontifical, Renaudot has the words, ' Then he shall
be arrayed in full archiepiscopal -1 vestments, namely
mitre, omophorion, and orarion.' There is nothing
here about morphotacion, pkacialion, or epicheri : but
cutting away what might seem to be mere repetition,
we get as the vestments of the patriarch dalmatic,
amice, stole, chasuble, pall, and mitre. There is
however reason to think that during the ceremony
of ordination some of the vestments are actually
removed and replaced. Which of the vestments are
so removed, cannot be determined : and it is natural
that the fresh enumeration should look like a clumsy
repetition. But in the corresponding service in the
Maronite Church, after the new patriarch has been
robed in alb, inferior orarion, sleeves, amice and
chasuble, there elapses a considerable time spent in
prayer and various rites ; and then, according to the
rubric, ( the bishops bring him before the altar and
take off from him the chasuble and amice of the priest
hood:' subsequently he is vested in mitre, chasuble,
and orarion, — the last being either the epitrachelion
as opposed to the inferior orarion above, or else the
omophorion : and the chasuble here mentioned seems
a richer vestment than that which was put on and
removed in the first instance.

From this analogy we may, I think, conclude that
there were five distinct stages in the investiture of
the Coptic patriarch. First, he wears only dalmatic
and amice : next, the priestly stole and chasuble are
added : thirdly, amice and chasuble being removed,
a more splendid chasuble and probably a finer amice

1 It is quite clear that Denzinger's archisacerdolali is a mere
mistake. The original is £.p2£iep<LT~IKOtt, which elsewhere
the same author repeatedly renders, and rightly, by archiepiscopalis.

L 2

148 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

are put on : then over the chasuble the patriarchal
pall is lowered : and finally the mitre is placed upon
the head. It is, however, very singular that neither
girdle nor sleeves are mentioned in the * ordination
service : and I do not feel at all confident that the
account I have given of the process of investiture
is accurate, inasmuch as both girdle and sleeves are
undoubtedly part of the patriarchal costume for
celebration at the present day l.

1 Without attempting to settle decisively the meaning of mor-
photacion, phacialion and the like, which cannot be done without
reference to the text, I may call attention to the criticism of Den-
zinger, who, with the text before him, is not merely helpless in
himself and to his readers, but literally abounds in error. Speak
ing of the Coptic patriarchal vestments, he says (torn. i. p. 130)
they are ' arnxdptov (Arabs : tunica [sic]), wpdpiov, (pi\6viov hoc est
(paiv6\ioi>, quae sunt presbyterorum vestes : praeterea vero ex ordi-
nationis textu Renaudotiano ^o^optov quod est super caput et
pendet ita ut descendat super pectus ejus, ex textu autem Tukiano
/uop<£ord/aoi>, cpf\6i>iov, hoc est penula sive casula, $a.Kid\iov quod a
capite ejus dependet, scilicet de homophorio (sic), et Epicherion
(enixfpi) super humerum ejus. Phakialion absque dubio erit mitra,
quae in orationibus memoratur ut insignium patriarchae peculiarium
pars quaedam. Est autem Omophorium (sic) linteum sive species
quaedam stolae similis pallio, crucibus insignita, collo et humeris
circumvoluta/

Now Renaudot's text does not say that the omophorion ' est
super caput/ which would be a description equally false and
ridiculous of the manner in which the pall is worn : but the words
are ' episcopus imponet ei homophorium (quod est insigne digni-
tatis) super caput ejus,' meaning of course that the pall is lowered
over the head, not that it rests upon the head.

Denzinger makes no remark about the morphotacion, and
indeed there seems nothing to give a clue to its meaning: but
over the phacialion he blunders strangely. The rubric, it is true,
describes this vestment as hanging from the head : and Denzinger,
having just placed the omophorion on the head instead of round

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 149

But whatever else remains secret in the mysterious
rubrics I have cited, this much at least is clear that
they offer abundant evidence for the existence of the

the shoulders, now explains the position of the phacialion by
saying that it hangs down from the omophorion ! Had 1 not cited
his words accurately, it would seem incredible that his next step is
to identify the phacialion with the mitre in the most confident
manner (absque dubio]. So then the mitre hangs down from the
head, where it is fastened to the omophorion or pall ! The learned
German has very singular notions of ecclesiastical costume. But
a still more extraordinary statement remains. Two pages later
(p. 132) Denzinger enumerates among the Nestorian vestments,
' Maaphra quod et dicitur Phakila et Kaphila, quod est pallium in
modum pluvialis nostri quo totum corpus ambitur, estque Grae-
corum 0aKioAtoi>.' Now it is quite certain that (pa<i6\iov and <£cma-
Atoi> must be the same thing : and here we are told that the phacia
lion is no longer a mitre but a cope ! But what authority is there
for the existence of a Greek vestment called <paKi6\iov resembling
the Latin cope ? I know of none. The patriarch Germanus in
his account of the Greek vestments uses the word <jxuu6\iov or
<£uK6o>Aioi/ to mean a bandage, remarking that the peritrachelion is
typical of the bandage wherewith Christ was bound when led away
from the High Priest : but there is not the smallest authority in
this passage, nor, I believe, in any other, for speaking of the
<$>aKi6\iov as a Greek vestment at all, much less for identifying it
with a cope. The cope can hardly be said to exist in the Church
of Constantinople : for the patriarch's navftvas, which comes nearest
to it, is part of his secular and not of his ecclesiastical apparel.

Du Cange in his Glossarium ad Scriplores Mediae et Infimae
Graecitatis gives the several forms $a<ea)\iov, <£ctKedXtoz/, ^cmoAtop,
and (jjaKfoiXis : and defines the word as ' fascia qua caput involve-
bant olim Saraceni atque adeo Graeci ipsi Byzantini ut hodie
Turci/ i. e. a sort of turban. The primary meaning seems to be
a long band or bandage, such as still is wound round the head to
make a turban. Hung over the shoulder, it might resemble a
stole ; and accordingly there is some questionable evidence to
show that the term phacialion may have been used as equivalent
to orarion by one or two loose writers. Goar cites a definition
from Coresius Chiensis, ' (panels tiara est et militum pileus, pro

150 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

omophorion as an essential vestment of the Coptic
patriarch. It is a question whether metropolitans
and bishops, as well as the patriarch, wear the
omophorion. Analogy would seem to answer the
question in the affirmative : and Marriott 1 says

prie inquam capitis KaXvurpa, Turcicae persimilis, qua caput velut
zona vel cingulo circumcingitur.' It is stated too that one of the
several early patriarchs of Alexandria called Timotheus was sur-
named aaXa^aKioXos because he wore a white head-dress. It seems
then probable, on the whole, that the phacialton, though not resem
bling in any way the Latin mitre, was some kind of eastern head
dress, more like a turban, with a lappet hanging over the back of
the neck, by virtue of which it is described as ' hanging down from
the head' in the difficult rubric of the Tukian Pontifical. Very
possibly it is neither more nor less than what Vansleb calls the
bellin, which he describes as a long band of white linen, a foot
wide and four ells in length, which is worn above the turban, wound
round the neck, and with ends falling over the shoulders (vide His-
toire de 1'Eglise d'Alexandrie, Paris, 1677, p. 9 seq.). The bellin he
assigns to the patriarch only : but in the rubric for the ordination
of a bishop in the Tukian Pontifical, one of the priestly vestments
is called TI£.Xin, which Denzinger translates by pallium, an
ambiguous word, possibly denoting the omophorion. I have
no doubt that the bellin and the IL&.Xirt are identical, and that
they are simply the amice, as worn in the peculiar manner described
in the text above (p. 118). I have there mentioned that the name
ballin (which is the correct form of the word) survives to-day as
the name of the turban-like amice worn by the Coptic priesthood
at the altar, and of another vestment worn by bishops. Taking
this fact along with Vansleb's description of the tailasan or
XoVIOIt as 'a long band of white linen wound turban-wise
around the head/ it can scarcely be doubtful, that the terms
ballm, n<?>.Xin and XoVIOtt are used for the same thing, though
originally denoting two distinct vestments.

As regards the other word morphotacion, I can find no hint of its
meaning or even of its existence in either Byzantine or Coptic
lexicons. It may perhaps be connected with the Coptic root
JULOp, to bind, and signify a girdle.

1 Vest. Christ, p. Ixxiv.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 151

decidedly that ' from the fifth century, if not from
an earlier time, down to the present, it has been
worn by patriarchs and metropolitans, and by almost
all bishops in the East.' There is, however, as
far as I am aware, no warrant for extending this
generalisation now over the Church of Alexandria.
For the omophorion, un
less the ballin be so re
garded, is not clearly men
tioned in any of the known
Coptic pontificals as used
in the investiture of either
bishop or metropolitan : a
singular omission, if the
pall were really the orna
ment which distinguished
all prelates from inferior Fig- 2 *• ~Seal of the Coptic Patriarch-
orders. Nor is there any pictorial evidence to
associate the omophorion with any other rank than
patriarchal. On the other hand, in the seal of the
Alexandrian patriarchate, while the pontiff is shown
wearing a pall, there is no sign whatever of such
a vestment on any one of the twelve figures which
surround him. The evidence then of this design
tells rather in favour of the pall being considered
distinctive of the patriarch, as in the Roman Church
it is distinctive of an archbishop.

Yet it is not at all inconsistent with the fore
going remarks to suppose that in ancient times and
originally the omophorion may have been worn by
bishops in the Coptic as in the Greek Church.
St. Isidore of Pelusium, himself an Egyptian, who
lived in the early fifth century, speaks of the
' omophorion of the bishops ' in language which

152 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

seems unmistakeable : though the earliest mention
of the vestment is in connexion with a patriarch
some twenty years previously, — Theophilus of Alex
andria. The words of St. Germanus in speaking of
the Greek ecclesiastical vestments l seem to denote
a different form of omophorion, though called by the
one name, for patriarch and bishop : and this may
have been the case also in the Church of Egypt.
Yet there is scarcely justification enough in the
Greek text for the arrangement of paragraphs in
Marriott's translation ; by which it is made to appear
that the episcopal is distinguished from the archi-
episcopal omophorion by having crosses embroidered
upon it, though the distinction is neither clearly
formulated by that writer, nor borne out by any
other evidence literary or monumental.

Coming now to the form of the Coptic omophorion,
we are met by a very curious coincidence ; for it
resembles far more closely the later shape of the
Roman pallium than the common form of the Greek
omophorion. There can be no question that origin
ally this vestment consisted of a single long woollen
band or scarf, which hung in a loop over the breast
in front and over the shoulders behind, and showed
one end hanging in front over the left shoulder, and
one end hanging behind. This form remains with
scarcely any change to-day in the Church of Con
stantinople, although the pendant now falls in front
down the centre of the body, instead of falling from
the left shoulder, and the loop is drawn up higher
round the neck instead of hanging so loosely as to
allow the right hand to rest upon it, as was the case

1 See Marriott, Vest. Christ, pp. 84-86.

CH. iv.j Ecclesiastical Vestments. 153

in ancient times. Such variation from the primitive
form as has taken place may be readily seen by
comparing plates xli and Iviii in Marriott's Ves-
tiarium Christianum : and it will be noticed at
once that the modern Greek form bears only a
distant resemblance to the modern Roman pall, and
this resemblance is merely accidental. Any sus
picion of Roman influence in determining the form
of the Egyptian omophorion is at once refuted by
the fact that the vestment as illustrated on the
patriarchal seal to-day is almost precisely the same
as that figured in the earliest known representation
of the omophorion, and that representation is oriental,
not Roman. For the mosaics of the mosque of St.
Sophia at Constantinople, dating from 537 A. D. and
therefore sixty years anterior to the well-known Roman
figure of St. Gregory, still preserve the forms of St.
Basil and four other bishops who lived in the fourth
century, and these are all arrayed in white sticharion,
white phelonion, and white Y-shaped omophorion 1.
It is this Y-shaped vestment which the omophorion
of the Coptic patriarch almost exactly resembles.
These sixth-century mosaics prove of course already
a fixed conventional formation of the omophorion,
and consequently a considerable previous antiquity.
Subsequent monuments, however, show that the
form fluctuated from time to time, the original
flowing scarf being never definitely abandoned. It
is curious therefore to find the conventional form
engraved on the seal of the Coptic patriarch identical
with the conventional form depicted on the walls of
St. Sophia.

1 Marriott, Vest. Christ, pi. Ixxv.

154 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv,

In the West also the records of early art prove
that the pall was originally a scarf worn precisely as
in the East. A fresco of the eighth century recently
discovered at Rome l shows St. Cornelius and St.
Ciprianus both vested in a pall, which is the same as
the Greek omophorion figured in the ninth-century
Greek miniature belonging to a MS. in the Biblio-
theque Nationale, and representing the second
General Council of Constantinople. In this minia
ture, which is given by M. Rohault de Fleury, and
in the similar one of the tenth or eleventh century
given by Marriott, and representing the seventh
General Council, all the bishops assembled wear
the omophorion over the breast, and with one end
hanging from the left shoulder. There is however
a decided difference in the arrangement of the vest
ment in the two pictures. In the earlier, the
omophorion droops over the breast much lower and
looser than in the later delineation, where it is
drawn up more closely round the neck, more like
the present fashion. Further, it is curious to remark
that in the ninth-century MS. the omophorion has
apparently only two crosses, one on each side of the
loop : there being no sign of the third cross, which
is figured on the straight piece hanging from the
shoulder in Marriott's illustration and generally in
all Greek miniatures. But this Greek way of wear
ing the pallium soon gave way in Rome to what has
been hitherto regarded as a distinctively Roman
fashion. How easily the transition was effected
may be gathered from a glance at the well-known

1 Marriott, Vest. Christ, pi. xxx, from De Rossi's Roma Sotter-
ranea.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 155

figure of Gregory the Great1 dating from about
600 A. D. There the pall is already worn across the
shoulders ; and the ends, after passing through the
loop before and behind, hang down the centre of
the body. As the consciousness of the original was
lost, the pendent pieces were merely tacked on to
the circular band which was put over the shoulders,
so as to form the T-shaped or Y-shaped pall common
in miniatures of the West from the ninth century
downwards 2. It is true that for some time the
Greek is found side by side with the Latin shape
of the pall. Thus in a ninth-century mosaic
at the Triclinium Lateranum the vestment of St.
Peter is still an omophorion : and even as late as
the twelfth century a very decided omophorion is
figured as worn by St. Ambrose in a mosaic of the
church called after him at Milan 3. Possibly however
the Byzantine character of the whole composition,
indicating the work of a Byzantine artist, may
detract from the value of this mosaic as evidence
for contemporary Roman custom.

The frequent destruction or defacement of the
Coptic churches after the Arab conquest has un
fortunately swept away nearly all the pictorial
monuments which recorded the earliest forms of
ecclesiastical costume. It is, however, remarkable
that the most ancient representation of the omo
phorion which I have found shows already a fixed
and conventionalised form of the vestment, nearly

1 Marriott, Vest. Christ, pi. xxv.

2 See for example, Marriott, pi. xxxix ; Westwood, Miniatures,
pi. 50.

3 Rohault de Fleury, La Messe, vol. i. pi. xvii.

156

Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.IV.

resembling the Latin pallium of later usage. The
nameless pillar-painting on which this omophorion
is figured has escaped by some accident the destruc
tion which has overtaken the like paintings on the
other nave-columns at Al Mu'allakah. There is
no doubt that the nimbus, the mitre, and the pall
denote some patriarch, whose name has been effaced
or forgotten. The pall is T-shaped and consists of
an unbroken band placed low across the shoulders,
with another band hanging from
the centre and concealing the clasp
of the girdle. Curiously enough
there is no sign of any cross upon
this pall-: each side of it has a
narrow embroidered border, and
the space between is filled with a
design of interlacing circles t>r
ovals : but the large crosses, charac
teristic alike of the Greek omopho
rion and the Latin pallium from the
earliest times to the most recent,
are entirely absent. It has been
mentioned that the same inter
lacing design adorns the mumbar
of a mosque built in the fourteenth
at Cairo : notwithstanding which I am
to refer the fresco to the eighth or
century. In any case it is the earliest piece
evidence for the use of the omo-

Fig. 25.— Fresco at Al
Mu'allakah.

century
inclined
ninth

of monumental
phorion. In panel pictures of a later date the vest
ment is sometimes though not very often pourtrayed.
Occasionally the Coptic pall may be seen arranged in
a manner nowise differing from the early Greek way
of wearing the omophorion, i. e. with an angular loop

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 157

or fold upon the breast, and one end hanging from
the left shoulder : upon it are three large crosses.
This form of the vestment is illustrated, for instance,
in the oft-mentioned picture of St. Nicholas 1. In the
north part of the choir at Abu-'s-Sifain, in the picture
representing the Death of the Blessed Virgin, all
the apostles thronging round the bier wear the
omophorion precisely in the Greek fashion 2. The
adjoining church of Al f Adra or Sitt Mariam contains
a picture of St. Mercurius in which a bishop is re
presented wearing a Greek omophorion over the
chasuble. But on the iconostasis of the same church
the twelve apostles are all arrayed in alb, dalmatic,
chasuble, and Y-shaped omophorion, and carry crosses
and gospels. As I have already noticed, the omo
phorion on the patriarchal seal is also Y-shaped and
rather Roman than Greek in character : it hangs
close about the neck and reveals in front three
nearly equal oblong divisions in each of which is a
cross. Probably a similar arrangement is concealed
rather than displayed in the very curious paintings
round the apse wall at Abu-'s-Sifain, where each of
the figures is vested in a cope which falls over
and hides the loop of the omophorion ; and yet
it is impossible to confuse omophorion and epi-
trachelion, because both vestments are represented,
the latter showing over the alb and under the
shorter dalmatic. Puzzling as this arrangement
appears, it is not uncommon in Coptic pictures ;
though sometimes again, where alb and dalmatic
are both given, the epitrachelion is worn over the

See frontispiece. 2 Vol. i. p. 108.

158 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

latter, as in the fifteenth-century paintings at Sitt
Mariam.

The fact, then, that the Y-shaped pall was de
veloped out of the early Greek form, seems proved
by the testimony of mediaeval Coptic monuments,
and the process is easy to understand ; but the
same monuments prove no less clearly that the
ancient form continued in vogue side by side
with the later omophorion. But this is not the
whole account of the matter ; for besides these
two forms, both more or less familiar even in
the West, the Coptic paintings give evidence of
a peculiar and characteristic usage. For some
times the Coptic pall appears much longer than
in the ordinary arrangement, and shows besides
the ordinary Y-shaped vestment a band of the
same material and colour, marked with similar
crosses, passing across the waist from the right side
to the left : at the left side the end falls over the
wrist or is held in the hand. Illustrations of this
manner may be seen in the seventeenth-century
picture of St. Mark attired as patriarch at the
church of St. Stephen by the cathedral in Cairo,
and in the figure of our Lord in the midst of the
row of paintings on the choir screen at Abu-'s-Sifain.
It seems from this arrangement that one end of the
omophorion is imagined as passing from the left
shoulder behind, across the back, to the right side,
and thence in front of the wearer across the waist,
whereas of course in the usual arrangement the end
hung behind over the left shoulder. Yet another
method of wearing the omophorion is one depicted,
for instance, in the painting of the archangel Michael
at the church of Abu Sargah. There also the scarf

OH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments.

'59

Fig. 26. — St. Michael : from a painting
at Abu Sargah.

is of great length, and it will be easier to follow its
disposition by beginning with that end which hangs
over the left wrist. From the left, as in the figure of St.
Stephen, it passes across to
the right side, thence behind
the back, under the left arm,
across the breast to the right
shoulder, round the nape of
the neck, over the left shoul
der. From the left shoulder
it passes half across the
breast, where it is pinned
under the other cross-piece,
and thence the end or por
tion remaining hangs down
the middle of the dalmatic
in front. Thus it recalls in
a way the Y-shaped vestment, but presents also a
curious variation.

These peculiar arrangements of the Coptic omo-
phorion are not very easy to account for. But
perhaps the most noticeable thing about them is the
length of scarf required ; and I cannot help thinking
that they represent the transition from the ancient
omophorion to the modern ballin as worn by bishops.
For the pictorial evidence of this peculiarly Coptic
pall is comparatively late, dating no further back
than the sixteenth century at the earliest ; while the
episcopal ballin is so recent as never to have been
received into the domain of art, and its likeness will
be sought in vain in any Coptic picture. This con
jecture is perhaps made surer by the fact that neither
the lengthened omophorion nor the episcopal ballin
rests on the sanction of any rubric or other formal

160 Ancient Coptic Chiwches. [CH. iv.

authority. But if it be true that the modern ballin
is the representative of the ancient omophorion, and
was developed from it, doubtless the process of de
velopment was chiefly a process of confusion — con
fusion between the shamlah or priestly amice, the
orarion, the epitrachelion, and the omophorion, vest
ments whose points of difference were easily disre
garded in the long darkness which has settled on
the Coptic Church. It must be owned with reluct
ance that much of this confusion is likely to persist,
and cannot be quite dispelled by any reasoning
founded upon such evidence as remains. It should
be remarked, however, that the Melkite or orthodox
Church of Alexandria retains to the present day the
ancient usage of the omophorion, and knows nothing
of the ballin1.

Concerning the antiquity of the patriarchal pall
there is little to add to the information already
brought together. In the East we have seen the
vestment first mentioned in connexion with a patri-

is not a Coptic word by etymology, and is doubt
less derived from the Latin pallium through the Greek form TraXXtoz/,
which occurs now and then in early Byzantine writers. Stephanus in
his Thesaurus (s. v. o-nxapioi/) says that Gregory of Nazianzen in his
will left toEvagrius the deacon Ka^aaov ev,a-txdpiov ev,jra\\{a dvo: cf. also
Epiph. II. 1 88 B. The form nd\\iv (or ? na\\\v) actually occurs in
Porphyrius. In Byzantine Greek, however, the word merely means
a cloak or mantle, and was never used to denote the omophorion.
It is therefore by a mere accident that the naXXiov among the Copts,
like the pallium among the Latins, was specialized to denote an
ecclesiastical ornament. By a precisely analogous change of
meaning the early Byzantine Kapdcnov (or Ka/uao-oi'), which meant
some sort of undergarment, became in Coptic ritual K<?>.JULA.CIOIt,
which, as we shall see presently, means sleeve or armlet. So wide
is the departure of the Coptic from the Byzantine sense in each
case, though the sound is scarcely altered.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 161

arch of Alexandria, about 385 A.D. In the West,
omitting the doubtful instance -of the bestowal of the
pall upon the bishop of Ostia by the bishop Marcus
of Rome (c. 330 A.D.), we have no mention of it
until about 500 A.D., when Symmachus granted it to
Theodore, archbishop of Laureacus in Pannonia.
A century later Gregory the Great, in writing to
Vigilius, bishop of Aries, terms it a matter of
ancient custom for a bishop to petition the see of
Rome for the pallium and for the vicarial authority
which it carried. While, however, there is not di
rect testimony enough to solve the question whether
the use of the pall first arose in Rome or in Alex
andria, yet the first undoubted mention of that
ornament is from the pen of an Egyptian writer. We
know that in the sixth century, at least, it was cus
tomary for a new patriarch to take the pall of
St. Mark from the neck of his deceased predecessor
before burial, as part of a solemn rite. Moreover
the omophorion in both the Greek and the Egyptian
Churches has existed and continued in use down to
the present moment, without any record of Latin
interference.

All this tells strongly against the claims of Rome
to regard the pall as an exclusively Roman privilege
to be granted as a mark of honour and received as
a token of allegiance. There seems some reason —
from a decree of the Council of Macon in 581 A.D.,
that no archbishop should celebrate without a pall—
to think that this pretension was not fully acknow
ledged by the Gallican Church in the sixth century;
but it is needless to trace its growth, and needless to
repeat that neither Copt nor Greek in any way con
fesses the supremacy of the Roman pontiff.

VOL. II. M

1 62 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.IV.

All over the Christian world the pall is rightly
made of wool and not of linen, to remind the wearer
that he is the spiritual shepherd of his flock. Both
the material and the symbolism are mentioned by
St. Isidore ; and to this day the benediction of the
white lambs destined to furnish the wool takes place
yearly on the day of St. Agnes, at the church called
after her in the Via Nomentana at Rome. After
the ceremony the lambs are kept in a convent till
the time for shearing is come. The palls made of
their wool are placed to rest all night upon St. Peter's
tomb on the eve of the apostle's festival, and on the
day following are consecrated upon the altar1.

An omophorion resembling the Greek in form, but
wider, is worn by prelates among the Armenians ;
among the Maronites also and the Syrians it is
recognised as part of the patriarchal investiture.
It is, of course, only by reference to the original
manner of wearing the omophorion, that our own
ancient rubrical directions for fastening the pallium on
the chasuble can be rightly understood. For we read
that it was ' fastened with a pin before and behind
and on the left shoulder2,' i. e. at the lowest point
of the curve or loop both on the breast and on the
back, and at the point where the ends crossed each
other on the left shoulder. If we attempt to apply
this direction to the T-shaped or Y-shaped pall, it
becomes meaningless : it is an intelligible and neces
sary arrangement as applied to the omophorion or
the pall as worn in the primitive fashion.

1 Cat^chisme de Perseverance par I'Abbe* I. Gaume, vol. vii.
p. 234 (4th edition, Brussels, 1842).

2 Bloxam's Ecclesiastical Vestments, nth edition, p. 5.

. iv.j Ecclesiastical Vestments. 163

THE ARMLETS.

(Coptic ni K£jm<Lciorc : Arabic

In speaking of the next ornament of the Coptic
priesthood, the sleeves or armlets, it is well at the
outset to guard against any identification or con
fusion of them with the maniple. The latter is so
familiar a vestment in the usage of the western
Church, that one may well feel surprise if nothing
exactly corresponding to it can be discovered in
Greek or Coptic ritual. Even allowing that the
Greek tyxdpiov both in name and purpose offers a
kind of parallel, there is no such ornament as this
napkin mentioned in the pontificals among the
Coptic vestments. The nearest approach that I
can find to any such appurtenance in Coptic cere
monial — apart from the veil or sudarium belonging
to the pastoral staff, of which more hereafter — is a
kerchief of some kind mentioned in a rubric as pre
sented with the cross to a bishop at ordination.
The rubric runs ' dabitque illi crucem et mantile ' in
Renaudot's translation ; but while the word ' mantile '
is obscure, the original text is inaccessible, and this
is the one solitary allusion to the existence of such
a kerchief, whatever its nature, in either the Coptic
or the Syrian or the Nestorian pontificals. The
cross delivered is, of course, the small hand-cross
used for benediction and not a crozier, so that the
1 mantile ' in this case cannot possibly correspond to
the veil or pannicellus. It has already been men
tioned that in both the Jacobite and the Melkite

M 2

164 Ancient Coptic Churches, [CH.IV.

branches of the Church of Alexandria one end of
the stole is carried in a way strongly suggestive of
the western maniple. This custom would perhaps
in itself rather tell against the existence of the man
iple as a distinct vestment, though betraying a con
sciousness of it, and possibly explaining its origin.
Yet it is only fair to recall here the fact that Abu
Dakn (if his English translator can be trusted) does
mention a maniple among the Coptic sacred vest
ments as carried in the left hand by priests, and not
allowed to deacons or inferior orders. This state
ment, however, stands alone, entirely unsupported
by external evidence : it is against all analogy, and
it is discredited by Abu Dakn's inaccuracy in other
matters. On the other hand, although the rubrics
are silent on the question whether a napkin was
ever used by the Copts, there is pictorial evidence,
slight in amount but decisive in character, proving
the existence of this appurtenance of worship.
Thus in the painting of St. Stephen at Abu
Sargah1, the sacred vessel carried in the saint's left
hand, whether it be a pyx or merely a coffer for
incense, rests upon a napkin which saves it from
actual contact with the fingers. It was doubtless
from precisely such a napkin in the West, designed
for the more -reverent handling of the eucharistic
vessels, that the maniple arose. While, however,
in the Latin Church it became an essential, among
the Copts it remained an accident of the altar ser
vice. Hence in the one case the original intention
of the maniple was forgotten, and it was exalted into
an ornamental vestment : in the other case it re-

1 See illustration, p. 137 supra.

CM. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 165

tained its original and more lowly purpose, being so
little honoured or regarded that the very fact of its
existence has required to be demonstrated. Granting,
however, the existence of this napkin, we must still
consider it as absolutely distinct from the sacerdotal
sleeves both in origin and in purpose.

The Coptic armlets correspond so obviously
in all respects with the Greek liripaviKia, that
I shall not hesitate to use that term for them,
wherever convenient. Marriott has an illustration *
of the epimanikia worn by the Russian bishop Nikita
in the twelfth century; but unfortunately no scale is
given with the drawing, and the author says nothing
to determine whether the ornaments are merely short
1 cuffs,' as he terms them, or are real sleeves covering
the forearm. Yet Goar2 describes the epimanikia
explicitly enough as reaching from the wrist to the
elbow. Whatever may be the case in the Greek
Church, the Coptic sleeves undoubtedly cover the
whole forearm, being broadest at the elbow and
tapering away towards the hand. They differ from
the Russian epimanikia just mentioned in being for
the most part entirely closed- and having the seam
concealed ; whereas those figured by Marriott look as
if they were intended to open, and were fastened on
to the arm by strings or buttons. Goar distinctly
alleges that the Greek priests use silken strings to
tighten the epimanikia on their arms, and his state
ment seems to bear out the inference suggested by
Marriott's illustration, that the cuff when unfastened
would open out flat. I have already joined issue
with Renaudot for first disclaiming all knowledge on

1 Vest. Christ, pi. Ivi. 2 Euchologion, p. ui.

1 66 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

the subject, and subsequently assuming the very
point in question, namely the correspondence in
shape between the Greek and Coptic epimanikia.
Neale1 describes the Syrian sleeves as differing en
tirely from the Greek epimanikia without further
explanation : but he adds that the latter ' hang down
in two peaked flaps on each side the arm, and are
fastened under the wrist with a silken cord run along
the border, by which they are drawn in and adjusted
to the arm.' This account is not so lucid as could
be desired, but seems to show that the epimanikion
is merely a napkin or cloth fastened round the arm,
and not a sleeve or cuff in the true sense of the
word. Neale, however, remarks that in some mosaics
on the walls at Nicaea, the vestment ' is represented
under quite a different form and approximates to
the sleeve of a well-made surplice/ Here again
there is surely some confusion in the language.
One cannot imagine the epimanikia as resembling
in any way the loose flowing sleeve of a surplice,
however ' well-made': surely the tight-fitting sleeve
of an alb or dalmatic is meant. But whatever be
the right reading, we are still left in the dark as re
gards the length of the sleeve, whether it covers the
whole arm or merely the forearm. It is therefore
difficult to speak positively about the Greek form of
epimanikion ; but as far as I can discover the Greek
and Coptic forms are rather different. The Coptic
sleeves are longer than the Greek : they are generally
sewn up and closed altogether, pains being taken to
hide the joining : and they are not fastened on, or
tightened, by silken strings. A pair at the church

1 Eastern Church: Gen. Introd., vol. i. p. 307.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 167

of Abu Kir wa Yuhanna are made of crimson velvet,
richly embroidered with stars and crosses wrought in
massive thread of silver. Round either end runs a
double border enclosing designs, and while one
sleeve is ornamented with a representation of the
Virgin Mary and her Son, the other has a figure of
an angel with outspread wings. Nothing can exceed
the fineness of the needlework and the delicacy of
the colours in which these figures are embroidered.
The extreme richness of the work denotes that this

Fig. 27.— Armlets at the Church of Abu Kir.

pair of sleeves belonged to a bishop, doubtless the
bishop of Babylon : indeed I believe that the mere
presence of figures, as opposed to crosses, is dis
tinctive of the sleeves as an episcopal ornament.
The Greek epimanikia, as belonging to the two
orders bishops and priests, are apparently not dis
tinguished in the same manner. Like the dalmatic
and other vestments of the Church of Alexandria,
the Coptic armlets were in bygone times not merely
made of the richest materials, and decked with the
most . costly embroideries, but they were also em-

1 68 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

bellished with jewels of much splendour. None of
these, I fear, are now remaining ; but in the painting
of St. Nicholas, to which I have referred, the cuffs
of the sleeves are shown as of gold or cloth of gold,
studded with gems of great value.

The epimanikia now worn by the Melkite or
orthodox Alexandrian clergy in Egypt are decidedly
cuffs, not sleeves, and are made indifferently either
close or open : in the latter case they are fastened
with strings.

The Coptic sleeves, though still part of the canon
ical dress of priests, bishop, and patriarch, at the
present day are seldom used except in the ceremony
of investiture at ordination, and consequently can
be seen with difficulty. The specimens figured in
the illustration are still at the church of Abu Kir wa
Yuhanna in Old Cairo, and date probably from the
sixteenth century. Modern examples likewise are
often of crimson velvet, covered with gold or silver
embroidery, in which designs of flowers and the six-
winged seraphim are the most usual ornaments.
Although generally they are entirely closed like
gauntlets, yet some examples are open and fastened
by loops and buttons, not by strings.

No satisfactory explanation has been given of the
origin or purpose of the epimanikia. The patriarch
Symeon describes them as symbolical of the divine
strength, citing the words ' Thy right hand, O Lord,
is glorified in strength/ and * Thy hands made me
and fashioned me ' : he adds also that they figure
the consecration by our Lord of his mysteries, and
the binding of his hands at the Passion. But such
an assignment of mystical meanings, characteristic
of a mediaeval writer, is no help whatever towards

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 169

solving the purely antiquarian question of the origin
of a sacerdotal vestment. It is faintly possible that
as the maniple in the Latin Church was convention
alised into a mere strip of brocade with a loop at one
end to go over the wrist, so in the Coptic Church
a corresponding napkin, laid in like manner on the
arm, may have been conventionalised into a sleeve,
and another added for the sake of symmetry. But
this account, which sounds decidedly improbable, is
rendered still more unlikely by the fact that both in
the Greek and in the Armenian Church the napkin
is always described as hanging not over the left
wrist but at the girdle. The tyytipiw is so men
tioned by the patriach Germanus1 as worn upon the
girdle by deacons, and lasted in this form until the
eleventh century, when it became the lozenge-shaped
piece of stiff material called now epigonation, from
its position as worn near the knee, but still hung by
a cord from the girdle. It is questionable whether
the use of the epigonation is entirely confined to
bishops, as stated by Neale2 and Marriott3, though
no doubt it is principally an episcopal ornament,
while the ty\ttpiov was worn by priests. But the
inherent difference between the sleeves and the
maniple or napkin is more convincingly illustrated
in the Armenian practice : for the Armenian clergy
still wear a napkin, for wiping the hands, attached to
the zone, while at the same time sleeves also, called
pasbans, form part of the ecclesiastical apparel. It

1 Marriott, Vest. Christ., p. 87.

2 Eastern Church: Gen. Introd, vol. i. p. 311, where the epigo
nation is figured.

3 Vest. Christ., p. 171 n.

170 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

is true that the pasbans have now degenerated into
mere slips of brocade1 worn one upon each wrist:
but the coexistence of maniple and sleeves in the
same ritual tells strongly against the supposition
that the sleeves are a mere development from the
napkin, although Fortescue does not hesitate to call
the pasbans maniples, just after enumerating the
maniple as a separate vestment of the Church. It
must be acknowledged, however, that there is scarcely
a jot of positive historical evidence bearing upon
the question, or tending even to guide conjecture.

The use of sleeves seems almost universal in the
eastern Churches : for besides the Coptic, Greek,
and Armenian custom already mentioned, armlets
are found also among the Syrians and the Nes-
torians. The Syrian term for them is zendo or
zenda, according to Renaudot 2, who remarks that
they correspond to the epimanikia or manicae, ' de
quarum forma inter orientales Christianos nihil certi
affirmare possumus.' He adds that in a miniature
of the Florentine MS. a priest is represented as
wearing a kind of epimanikia, which enclose the
arms above the elbow: and these, he says, have
nothing in common with the Greek form. Hence it
would appear that he imagines the Greek epimanikia
as short sleeves or cuffs : but there is nothing to
cancel his direct confession of ignorance. Equally
ignorant but less ingenuous is Denzinger 3, who in
treating of the Nestorian vestments merely mentions
' brachialia ' as an ornament worn by both priests
and bishops.

1 Fortescue, Armenian Church, p. 133.

2 Lit. Or., torn. ii. p. 55.

3 Kit. Or., torn. i. p. 132.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 171

Coming now to western Christendom, Rock x
hazards a conjecture that sleeves or armlets were
part of the sacerdotal dress in the early Church of
Britain. This however he admits to be a mere
inference from the analogy of early Gallican custom,
and as a pure guess has no serious weight. In
Gaul however ' metal bracelets, or cuffs of silk or
other handsome texture V were undoubtedly worn
among the ecclesiastical vestments in the sixth
century 3, according to the explicit evidence cited
by Mr. Warren : — ' manualia vero, id est manicas,
sacerdotibus induere mos est instar arrnillarum quas
regum vel sacerdotum brachia constringebantur.'
This testimony is extremely interesting as pre
serving the record of a now forgotten ornament
once adopted by the early Church of Gaul. Whether
these armlets were subsequently disused from mere
indifference, or were actively discountenanced by
Roman missionaries, cannot now be determined.
But no one, I imagine, will venture to maintain that
the eastern armlet was derived from Gallic example
in the far West. Unless, therefore, we take refuge
in the theory of a quite independent origin for this
peculiar priestly ornament in the eastern Churches
and in the Church of Gaul, we are driven to the
conclusion that the epimanikia were brought from
the East — perhaps by some colony of Egyptian
monks, such as we know came over to Gaul and
to Ireland in the earliest Christian times — and were
deliberately adopted by the Gallic clergy. If this
idea of eastern influence be correct, it is not merely

1 Church of our Fathers, vol. i. p. 438.

2 Warren, Lit. and Kit. of the Celtic Church, p. 117.

3 Id. ib. note 3.

172 Ancient Coptic Churches.

curious when taken in connexion with other tokens
of the same influence in the early British and Irish
Churches ; but it furnishes also an argument for the
extreme antiquity of the Coptic sleeves as a sacred
vestment. Moreover if the sleeves had passed from
Egypt to Gaul, and there become an habitual orna
ment by the sixth century ; not only must they have
been in use in the Church of Alexandria for some
considerable time previously, but the proof of the
original distinctness of the sleeves and the maniple
or napkin, for which I have contended above, is
rendered quite conclusive.

According to the testimony of Goar the use of
sacred armlets still lingered on as late as the seven
teenth century in some of the French churches, and
was particularly maintained by the Dominican order
of Preaching Friars, of which he himself was a
brother. Such being the case, it is singular that so
remarkable and ancient an appurtenance of church
worship should be so entirely ignored by French
and other liturgical writers.

CHAPTER V.

Ecclesiastical Vestments (continued).

Phelonion. — Crown or Mitre. —Crozier or Staff of Authority. — Pectoral
Cross. — Sandals.— Benedictional Cross. — Epigonation. — Rosary.

THE PHELONION OR SUPERVESTMENT.

(Coptic ni 4>eXoruon, m KOfjcXiort, m
Arabic

HILE it is necessary at the outset to use
a vague term like * supervestment ' to
denote the outer garment of the Coptic
priesthood, concerning which there is
the most bewildering conflict of authorities, I shall
endeavour to show that this conflict of evidence,
pointing now to a chasuble, now to a cope, does not
arise from any mere misunderstanding of terms, but
indicates a real confusion of usage.

From a brief review of the writers cited above for
the Coptic ministerial dress we may gather the fol
lowing statements about the supervestment. Abu
Dakn, if rightly rendered, describes it as ' pallium
cum cucullo/ worn not only by priest but even by
deacon or subdeacon at the korban, when no bishop
is celebrating. Vansleb, writing towards the end of
the seventeenth century from personal observation,
has no hesitation in calling the outer robe a cope,
and adds that the vestment as worn by priests is
plain, but that the episcopal cope is hooded. He

174 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

further identifies the vestment by giving the Arabic
na.me,at6urnus. The Ritual of the patriarch Gabriel,
dating from the beginning of the fifteenth century,
speaks of a ' pallium seu cappa e serico candido,'
according to Renaudot' s translation ; but the same
writer is responsible for rendering Abu Saba's term
for the Coptic supervestment by the Latin * camisia
sive alba/ Finally, Renaudot himself alleges that
by al burnus is meant a vestment corresponding to
the Latin chasuble, called apparently K<LJUL£.cion T
in the Coptic pontificals. With characteristic in
difference he quite ignores the fact that, by his own
testimony, the same vestment is called a cope in
Gabriel's Ritual.

So much for the direct literary evidence, which
obviously is not very cogent. Now the weightiest
authority here quoted is that of Gabriel. It is
extremely disappointing that one must remain in
ignorance of the actual word used by the patriarch,
and rendered ' cope ' by Renaudot. I have scarcely
any doubt that in this instance the word should be
translated not 'cope' but * chasuble.' The mere
fact that the material is white silk tells rather in
favour of the chasuble ; for all the ordinary priestly
vestments were originally of white colour according to
the canons, whereas the cope, being a festal robe
worn in processions and great ceremonies, might be
of any colour. Again, Abu Saba, who wrote about
a century earlier, calls the supervestment by a

1 This of course seems inconsistent with the present use of
KA-AtuLCIOIt to denote the armlet, as stated above: though
obviously it would a priori be the more natural application of the
term. But the Copts are responsible for the inconsistency.

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 175

name which unquestionably is wrongly rendered
* alb ' by Renaudot : yet the confusion may be par
doned if K<LJUL£.cioit is really the Coptic term for
chasuble, as the word bears so close a resemblance
to (^r./s*f (kamis), the popular Arabic term for the
alb or dalmatic. In any case I think it impossible
to construe Abu Saba's evidence as establishing
decisively the use of the cope as a regular part of
the ministering dress. It must be remembered that
both Gabriel and Abu Saba speak with some
authority, if only their language were clearer,—
Gabriel being the primate of the Coptic Church,
and Abu Saba a native writer deliberately com
posing a treatise on ecclesiastical matters. It may
be taken for granted, therefore, that their testimony
will agree exactly with that of the other Coptic
pontificals, where it is intelligible, and is to be
explained by them where it is doubtful. Unfor
tunately here again we are met by ambiguities,
as the words ' pallium album,' ' cappa alba ' are
found used of the last vestment put on by the
bishop at his ordination, in the Tukian Pontifical *.
Yet both names apparently denote one and the
same vestment, and that is apparently the chasuble.
That the chasuble is meant, seems proved by the
rubric at the end of this same office for the con
secration of a bishop, which runs 2, ' Quando danda
est ultima benedictio ad dimittendum populum,
patriarcha induct novum episcopum cappa nigra
praeter candidam et invitabit eum ad benedicendum
populum seorsim. Denique procedunt ad cellam
patriarchalem.' Now if by 'cappa' a cope is meant

1 Denzinger, Kit. Or., torn. ii. pp. 29, 31. 2 Id. ib.'p. 32.

176 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

in both cases, we have to imagine the new bishop
weighted with two copes : but the mere task of
arranging two copes in a becoming manner upon
the same person would not be easy, apart from the
intolerable burden of wearing them in a climate like
that of Egypt. But if the last liturgical vestment
with which the new bishop is invested — the ' pal
lium album' or * cappa alba' — be really a chasuble,
then it is easy to understand how, after the com
pletion of the ceremony of ordination, the bishop
is finally arrayed in a dark-coloured cope (nigra) for
the procession to the patriarch's residence — a pro
cession which we know from other sources was one
of great magnificence. But even if we must put
aside this doubtful evidence, there is happily no
question whatever that the chasuble is definitely
mentioned in the rubrics and elsewhere. For in
his work called * A Light in the Darkness ' Abu '1
Birkat, a Coptic priest of the fourteenth century,
mentions the chasuble as part of the patriarchal
vestments1 under the term ' couclo sive casula! This
word may be another form of the * KOYXX<L ' which
occurs in the pontificals, and seems to mean either
a hood, or more probably a hooded chasuble such as
existed in early times in the western Churches 2. But
.more decisive still, in the Tukian Pontifical in the
/office for the ordination of a patriarch 3 the chasuble
is mentioned along with stole and dalmatic, and is
here called cJ>iXomort, which is obviously the same
word as the familiar <f>t\6viov or chasuble of the Greek
Church. Indeed in the curious rubric a few pages

^Renaudot, Lit. Or., torn. i. p. 396.
2 Marriott, Vest. Christ., p. 227.
Denzinger, Kit. Or., torn. ii. p. 49.

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 177

later in the same service 1, the Coptic term corre
sponds exactly with the Greek — c£>eXomort. We
find, then, that, in the only cases where our authori
ties cite the original Coptic, the vestment is unmis-
takeably determined as the chasuble.

This conclusion is borne out by pictorial evidence.
Thus the figure of Constantine in the painting at
Abu-'s-Sifain shows a chasuble with a short rounded
front barely reaching to the waist : while the con
siderably earlier picture of St. Nicholas in my pos
session represents the outer robe as a very full
flowing garment 2. The arms raised — one in the
attitude of benediction, the other holding the book
of the gospel — show the folds of the chasuble very
clearly, though unfortunately, as the figure is only
half-length, one cannot see whether the lower edge
in front was rounded or pointed. About the opening
for the neck there runs a richly jewelled orfrey,
which is doubtless the ' border wrought in gold or
other fine embroidery/ mentioned by Renaudot as
belonging to the chasuble, and called ^KOKXl^L in
Coptic, kaslet in Arabic. It will be remembered
however that, according to Abu '1 Birkat, both
monks and priests at Cairo in the fourteenth
century, whether from poverty or simplicity, wore
a woollen chasuble without any orfrey, instead of
the proper silk vestment : and the monks of St.
Macarius in the desert disused the chasuble en
tirely in the service of the altar, retaining it only
for their times of public prayer.

At this day, within the kasr or keep of this very
convent, there may still be seen upon the walls of

1 Denzinger, Rit. Or., torn. ii. p. 57.

2 See the frontispiece to this volume.

VOL. II. N

178 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

the little church dedicated to St. Antonius some very
ancient frescoes representing three nimbed and vested
figures, one of which wears a yellow chasuble, another
a white chasuble striped with red, the third a cope
fastened by a fine morse. In the church of St.
Michael in the tower of Dair Anba Bishoi the
apostles on the iconostasis are all robed in copes.
Returning to Cairo, one finds the cope depicted in
two pictures of Anba Shanudah in the church called
after him, on the figures round the apse-wall at
Abu-'s-Sifain, and in many other places : while true
chasubles may be seen in the paintings of the twelve
apostles on the central iconostasis, and in the fif
teenth-century paintings on the south iconostasis, at
Al 'Adra Damshiriah. In the same church on the
north wall of the choir there is a picture of St.
Mercurius, which shows a bishop wearing chasuble
and Greek-like omophorion : and in the village
church at Tris in the Delta there is a picture
showing St. Macarius clad in a green chasuble.
On the whole, however, the chasuble is of much
rarer occurrence than the cope in such paintings as
have survived from Muslim iconoclasts.

In many of the Coptic pictures a chasuble, exactly
resembling that worn by priests or saints, is repre
sented as the outer garment of the Virgin Mary or
other holy women, the only difference being that in
this case a hood is attached to the chasuble, and is so
arranged in the painting as to make a graceful head
dress. Very often however the Virgin wears a
beautifully embroidered cope, fastened with a golden
morse, and having a rich orfrey on the hood which
covers the head. This ecclesiastical style of female
costume, it may be remarked, is characteristic of

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 179

Coptic painting, and differs altogether from the
nameless flowing draperies in which the Italian
painters for the most part array their madonnas.

But wherever the chasuble is depicted, it seems
to differ widely from the Latin chasuble, and to
approach much more nearly to the Greek model.
No doubt originally it was a complete covering
or overall, such as is seen in the figure of St.
Sampson in the illustration given by Goar and
adopted by Marriott. But between eastern and
western usage a distinction arose, when the vest
ment came to be cut away over the arms for the
sake of greater lightness and freedom of movement.
For while in the West the chasuble became in
course of time almost equally reduced both before
and behind ; the reduction in the East was less
marked, and amounted only to a slight curtailment
in front and over the arms, with scarcely any altera
tion at the back. Viewed from behind, therefore, it
presented the form of a full flowing robe reaching
nearly to the ground, while in front it resembled
rather the corresponding Latin vestment. The
change of course was gradual in both cases. We
find the large flowing chasuble in the fresco of
S. Clemente at the altar, and in the well-known
miniature of St. Dunstan 1, both dating from the
eleventh century: while in a twelfth-century mosaic
at St. Nicholas in Urbe at Rome, Silvester and
Anastasius are represented in long full chasubles
exactly like that worn by St. Nicholas in the Coptic
picture figured above. But the changes under
gone by the Latin chasuble only tended to differen-

1 Marriott, Vest. Christ., pi. xliii and xliv.
N 2

180 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

tiate it more completely from any other vestment :
whereas the Coptic chasuble, changing only in the
front, approximated more and more closely to the
form of the cope. And this, I think, is the secret
of the confusion between the two vestments.

For it is impossible to reject the evidence of
Vansleb concerning the existence of the cope as a
ministerial vestment in his own time in Cairo, even
if Abu Dakn's testimony has a doubtful ring. We
find too that the cope is clearly depicted as worn by
a patriarch in one of the earliest monuments sur
viving — the pillar-painting at Al Mu'allakah. More
over at the present day the cope unquestionably is
worn. I have mentioned a beautiful cope as existing
at the church of Al f Adra, Dair Abu-'s-Sifain : and
there are some splendid specimens of coloured copes
enriched with silver-embroidered hoods and fine
needlework at the church of St. Stephen by the
cathedral in Cairo. Moreover the vestment now
denoted by the term al burnus among the Copts is
decidedly a cope, and not a chasuble. I have never
seen a chasuble in any of the Coptic churches,
though I have heard of a dalmatic split up the sides
and made into a sort of vestment probably intended
to resemble a chasuble, as if the tradition of its use
were still alive. This was in a remote church in
Upper Egypt.

It is now possible to state the problem under
discussion more succinctly and more clearly, if not to
solve it. Setting aside all ambiguous testimony, we
can now bring face to face two apparently contra
dictory conclusions each supported by unmistakeable
evidence. On the one hand, we find the ancient rubrics
and independent observers alike bearing witness

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 181

to the chasuble as the supervestment of the Coptic
priesthood : on the other hand, we find contemporary
usage and observers as far back at least as the seven
teenth century agreeing that the supervestment is a
cope, and not a chasuble. And pictorial evidence
may be adduced to favour either conclusion.

What seems the true solution of this problem
has already been briefly indicated. It is impossible
to doubt either that both chasuble and cope have
been recognised as canonical vestments, or that the
chasuble has now practically disappeared : and I
have no doubt that the explanation of the whole
matter is to be found in the gradual transformation
suffered by the chasuble. From the first it retained
its original flowing form at the back and sides ; but
the process of lightening in front went on, until the
part of the chasuble across the breast was so far
diminished, that both for appearance and for con
venience' sake it was entirely severed by a vertical
division down the front ; and the vestment was abso
lutely assimilated to the cope. This explanation
seems to remove all difficulties : moreover it is
supported by the strongest analogies. For an
exactly similar process of transformation may be
traced in the history of the Greek chasuble or
phenolion, although the process has been arrested
just before the last modification seen in the Coptic
vestment, and a slight portion of the material
still stretches across the breast instead of being
divided. But the change has gone so far, that it
would be easy on a careless view to mistake the
phenolion for a cope *. For the front has been

1 See G. Gilbert Scott, Essay on the History of English Church
Architecture, pi. xxii, figs. 12 and 13, and text, p. 116, note n.

1 82 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

almost entirely cut away, while the back part is
quite unaltered. As in the West, so in the East,
it is chiefly the custom of elevating the host
which has given rise to the mutilated form of the
chasuble. On this point I cannot refrain from
quoting the admirable remarks of Mr. G. Gilbert
Scott, who says, ' In the early ages during the canon
the priest was concealed from view by the altar-
veils. The adoration of the people did not therefore
take place at the moment of the sacrifice, as is now
the custom of the western church, but at a later
point in the service, when, the veils being withdrawn,
the celebrant advanced, and while presenting the
eucharist to the worship of the people, gave with
it the solemn blessing. This, the primitive manner
of the eucharistic adoration, has never been aban
doned by the easterns, and as it does not require
the celebrant to raise his arms above the level of
the breast, the mutilation which the oriental pheno-
lion has undergone is confined to the front of the
vestment.' Apart from the mistake, almost universal
in writers on oriental ecclesiology, of generalising
* Greek ' into ' eastern ' custom, no better or briefer
account of the change in the form of the chasuble
could be given. This account however will not
apply in letter, but only in spirit, to the Coptic
chasuble as affected by Coptic ceremonial. For
although the elevation of the host takes place now
as in ancient times not at the moment of office, but
at the end of the service, just before the thanks
giving ; yet in the Egyptian rite the sacred elements
are raised now not merely to the level of the priest's
breast, but over his head. Such an action would
have been awkward or impossible, so long as the

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 183

arms of the celebrant were cumbered with the heavy
draperies of the ancient chasuble : and it is obvious
that such a change in the ritual would necessitate a
change in the vestment. If, therefore, the Greeks
retain the ancient manner of elevating the host
breast-high ; and if notwithstanding the phenolion
has been so curtailed in front as almost to resemble
a cope ; it is not surprising that the Copts, in raising
the point of elevation, have so changed their chasuble,
that it resembles a cope, not almost but altogether.
How easily this transformation may have taken
place, can be judged from a glance at even an
ancient Coptic chasuble, such as that worn by St.
Nicholas in the picture already mentioned. For the
opening for the head is not circular merely as was
the case in the Latin vestment, but is extended by a
slit down the middle of the breast for eight or ten
inches : and the only orfrey with which the chasuble
is adorned runs round the neck and down both sides
of this slit. Once imagine the vestment curtailed
in front, and the slit or division carried a little down
wards to reach the hem, and the result is a robe
in no wise distinguishable from a cope, unless pos
sibly the hood may have been a later addition. But
even this is doubtful ; for the hooded chasuble is
certainly not unknown and may have been common :
and on the other hand, the hood is not invariably
found on the Coptic cope, but is a distinguishing
mark of the episcopal and patriarchal as opposed to
the priestly form of the vestment. The cope worn
at solemn festivals by the present patriarch is of
crimson velvet decked with heavy gold embroidery:
the hood of like material has a gold tassel hanging
from the point, and is fitted inside with a sort of cap,

184 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

which may be worn instead of the mitre. It may
here be mentioned that there is no parallel in any
Coptic chasuble, for the elaborate orfrey which
branched over the western chasuble, and is made
familiar to English eyes in many ancient brasses
and monuments.

If there is any shadow of doubt still resting on the
history of the Coptic supervestment, as here given, it
will, I think, be dispelled by a consideration of the
exactly similar transformation which has befallen the
Armenian phenolion. For the phenolion, though it
existed in the early Church of the Armenians, as in
every eastern Church, has now entirely vanished from
their ceremonial, and, as in the Coptic rite, has been
replaced by the cope. When one remembers that
one of the questions put to an Armenian bishop at
ordination is, ' Dost thou anathematise Eutyches and
all his following ?' one may feel surprised at the
number of close analogies that exist between Arme
nian and Coptic practice, — analogies which will be
multiplied, when we come to treat of rites and cere
monies. The native term for the cope is sciursciar
according to Denzinger1, shoochar according to For-
tescue2, while Neale alleges that they have retained
the name phenolion*, after changing the vestment.
Neale cites no authority for his statement, which is
very interesting if true : but of course it is possible
that the Greek name may linger on in the rubrics
or in ecclesiastical treatises, though lost to the ver
nacular. He adds that the chasuble had been aban
doned, at least as long ago as the time of the

1 Rit. Or., torn. i. p. 133. 2 Armenian Church, p. 134.

3 Eastern Church : Gen. Introd., vol. i. p. 309.

CH. v.j Ecclesiastical Vestments. 185

Katholikos Isaac, who comments severely on the
fact in his work upon the errors of the Armenians.
This would be in the twelfth century : but Neale
seems to have mistaken the sense of the passage
referred to, which censures the priesthood for not
using the phenolion, but says nothing about any
change in the form of the vestment.

The true nature of the eucharistic supervestment
seems no less difficult to determine in the case of
the other eastern Churches. Neale, indeed, is bold
enough to state that ' the other branches of the
eastern Church have retained the usual form ' of the
phenolion1: but once more he seems in error. To
take the Syrian practice first. There can be no doubt
that originally the chasuble existed among the Syrians,
and was called by a name derived from the Greek
phelonion. In ancient rubrics and the like, the
Syrian word employed is phelono or phaino. Thus
Severus Alexandrinus, in his work on the Ritual
of the Syrians, notes that the priest in apparelling
himself for the altar puts on dalmatic, stole, sleeves
(the left before the right), and then the phaino or
chasuble ; though Boderianus absurdly renders the
word by ' amictus ' in his Latin translation2. The
Syrian lexicographer, too, Isa-bar-Hali, gives the three
forms faino, filono, and phaino ; explains the term to
mean the eucharistic vestment worn by priests, as
opposed to the kutino or dalmatic worn by deacons ;
and renders it by cal burnus' as the Arabic equivalent
found in Copto- Arabic writings3. In the illuminated

1 L. c.

2 Severus Alexandrinus, De Ritibus apud Syros, etc. ; ed. Guido
Fabricius Boderianus : Antwerp, 1572.

3 Renaudot, Lit. Or., torn. ii. p. 55.

1 86 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

Syrian pontifical at Florence, cited by Renaudot, the
phaino is represented as a full flowing vestment,
resembling the early Roman chasuble : it is gen
erally of uniform colour — purple in three examples,
and green in one ; but there is also a miniature in
which the phaino is depicted as covered with em
broidery of flowers. Moreover in a still more
ancient Syriac MS. dated 580 A.D., the figure of
Eusebius is represented in a miniature as draped in a
perfectly formed ecclesiastical chasuble of the early
type, and the hole for the neck is already marked by
a square orfrey1. So far the evidence in favour
of the unchanged phenolion or chasuble seems explicit
enough. But as we come dowrn to more recent times,
we find equally explicit evidence to the contrary.
Thus Asseman writing in the early eighteenth cen
tury, remarks that the phaino, while corresponding in
name to the Latin penula and the Greek phenolion,
yet is open down the front, resembling the western
cope and not the chasuble: and this information
may be based on a Syrian pontifical in the autograph
of the patriarch Michael2. The Syrian rubrics
frequently use the word phaino, and sometimes
define it as white : but of course do not explain the
form of the vestment. It is only fair, however, to
remember that Asseman seems clearly to be writing
from his own observation ; and even if such be not

1 Bibliothecae Mediceae Catalogus, Cod. I, tab. iii : Florence,
1742. Marriott has adopted the illustration (Vest. Christ., pi. xxvii)
but not very faithfully.

2 Denzinger, Rit. Or., torn. i. p. 131, and torn. ii. p. 73n. The
note, however, is very difficult to follow as it speaks of a 'pallio
seu casula/ used instead of the dalmatic, and distinguishes this
from ' phaino, h. e. penula, quae est phenolium .... ad instar
pluvialis Latinorum/

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments, 187

the case, there is much to confirm and nothing to
discredit his evidence.

Whether among the Maronites the cope has been
substituted for the chasuble, is a question on which
I can find very little information. This much only
is certain, that the same name for the vestment —
phaino — obtained in their pontificals. Asseman1
indeed alleges that this phaino is like the ma-
aphra or phakila of the Nestor ians, in other words
is a cope and not a chasuble : but it is extremely
probable that, even if the character of the vestment
had been thus entirely changed by the seventeenth
century, the original or at least the modified Roman
form of the chasuble has been restored by subse
quent Roman influence.

Regarding the Nestorian practice at the present
day, it is impossible to speak precisely. Denzinger2
indeed declares twice over that the phelonion, as
worn by the Nestorians, resembles the western cope :
but the whole paragraph which he devotes to the
Nestorian vestments is a matchless puzzle, of which
he retains the key3. Or perhaps the key is to be

1 Bibliotheca Orientalis, torn. iii. pt. 2. p. 681 : Rome, 1728.

2 Rit. Or., torn. i. p. 132.

3 In the passage just cited he says that the priest wears dalmatic,
orarion over both shoulders, a 'pallium' (whatever that means)
called gulta, and over the orarion a phelonion or cope (pluviali)
instead of a chasuble. The ornaments which bishops and priests
wear in common are, (i) the maaphra, called also phakila and
kaphila, which is a ' pallium ' like the western cope, enveloping the
whole body and corresponding to the Greek <$>aKi6Kiov (sic) ; (2)
liruna, a cap or head-dress like the amice ; (3) sciuscefo, or veil
(velum).

I have elsewhere pointed out the absurdity of comparing with the
imaginary Greek vestment </>afadXioi> our cope or any other western

1 88 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

found with Asseman, whom he has quoted without
understanding. Asseman however uses decisive lan
guage, identifying with the cope a patriarchal vest-
vestment. Asseman is really responsible for this blunder : but
Denzinger ought not blindly to have adopted so obvious a fallacy.
Now there is a prayer in the ordination service for bishops to be
said at the moment of investiture with the maaphra, where Denzin
ger renders the original thus : ' Induat te Dominus/><2//z'0 (seu casula)
lucis,' &c. (torn. ii. p. 247). A rubric also in the ordination service
for a patriarch is as follows : ' Tune aiferunt Kaphilam et princeps
metropolitarum illam super caput ejus demittit ' (ib. p. 255). We
have therefore first the word maaphra rendered as chasuble, and
secondly the kaphila (which is identical with the maaphra] described
as being lowered over the head — a description which obviously
will not apply to a cope, and suggests irresistibly a chasuble. Yet
another rubric (ib. p. 272), with the prayer of investiture that fol
lows, may be taken to establish the identity of the maaphra with
the chasuble : for there the vestment is described symbolically as
' the garment of celestial glory,' and the prayer continues — ' The
Lord arm thee with the mystical armour of the spirit, adorn thee
with the works of righteousness, and enrich thee with the gift of
chastity : that without spot or blemish thou mayest feed the sheep
entrusted unto thee in the fear of God and in all holiness, now and
alway.' This passage cannot fail to recall the corresponding words
and symbolism used in western pontificals at the point of investiture
with the chasuble. There is then ample ground for believing that
at the time these rubrics were written, which is probably not later
than the ninth century, the phenolion was still the recognised super-
vestment at the Nestorian celebration of the mass.

Reverting now to Denzinger's statement concerning the 'pallium'
or gulta, we may, I think, explain it by reference to Dr. Badger's
mistake in the text above, which Denzinger has seized with his
usual avidity for blunders. The truth is that the so-called 'pallium'
is nothing but the dalmatic ; and because Dr. Badger, being igno
rant of the right term, uses a wrong one, ' surplice,' in English,
Denzinger out of this manufactures an entirely new vestment for
the Nestorians. This will be made quite clear by a comparison
of torn. i. p. 132, 'Presbyter orarium habet collo impositum . . .
supra tunicam albam, . . . et pallium quod dicitur gulta, et super

CH. v.j Ecclesiastical Vestments. 189

ment called maaphra, which he remarks * apud
Syros Nestorianos pro phenolic seu phelonio Grae-
corum et penula, casula, planeta Latinorum sumitur,
quae tamen ante pectus aperta sit et pluvialis formam
repraesentetV The question seems so far settled for
that period : and there is a distinguished orientalist
of our own times, Dr. Badger, whose evidence ought
to be worth quoting. In describing the Nestorian
vestments which he saw at Ashttha2, he mentions
two which he calls ' surplice,' and ' chasuble,' respec
tively : but he defines the ' surplice ' as a sort of
shirt with short sleeves, by which it is clear that he
means a dalmatic ; and the ' chasuble ' he explains as

orarium induitur (sc. presbyter) phelonio sive pluvial!/ with torn. ii.
p. 266, where he remarks upon the 'pallium' or dalmatic which
the bishop lays on the left shoulder of the priest at the very begin
ning of the ordination service, ' Anglice est Surplice. Posuimus
vocem ab Assemano usurpatam. Est gulta, quae super orarium
induitur/ Now in the first of these passages the position of the
gulta as worn is left to the imagination, but it seems to come over
the orarion : in the second passage we are told plainly that it does
come over the orarion. But what the first passage states unam
biguously is this, that it is the supervestment which comes directly
over the orarion. What then becomes of the gulta or surplice ?
Obviously it must disappear, and merge back into the tunica alba
or dalmatic, from which it has been conjured up by a process of
mere misunderstanding. Were this conclusion doubtful, it would
be rendered certain by the rubric on the next page as follows:
' tune episcopus pallium sumat de humeris eorum et eo induat eos,
et sumat stolam de humero eorum sinistro et circum colla appendat.'
This proves finally that the priest at ordination was invested with
the 'pallium' or gulta first, and that the orarion was then placed
over the ' pallium ;' in other words, that the ' pallium ' and dalmatic
or sticharion are identical.

1 Bibl. Or., 1. c.

2 The Nestorians and their Rituals, vol. i. pp. 225-6 : London,
1852.

190 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

' a plain square cloth with a cross inscribed (? em
broidered) in the centre, which is thrown over the
head and shoulders, and the two parallel corners (sic)
held between the thumb and forefinger of each hand.'
Were this a chasuble, there could not be a cross in
the centre, for there the hole for the head must come :
moreover a chasuble could not rightly be described
as ' thrown ' over the head and shoulders, but as so
placed or lowered : and there could be no reason for
holding a chasuble by the ' corners/ whatever that
term could denote. It is much to be regretted that
so learned a scholar should be so ignorant of liturgi
cal terms as to confuse a dalmatic with a surplice, and
to call a ' plain square cloth ' a chasuble : but the
same ignorance is displayed in his magnificent work,
the English-Arabic lexicon, and his authority as a
ritualist is nothing. Dr. Badger adds that the vest
ment which he terms a surplice is called peena in
Syriac, — a name which suggests the phaino orpkaina,
but may of course be a mistake in borrowing on the
part of the Nestorians, — and that the ' chasuble ' is
called estla or shoshippa. The latter word might be
akin to shouchar, which, as we have seen, is the Ar
menian term for a cope. But on the whole, Dr.
Badger's testimony cannot be taken as of serious
value : indeed, if it stood alone it would be so per
plexing as to be worse than useless. But there is a
later writer1 than Dr. Badger, who very decidedly
affirms the long disuse of the chasuble by the Nes-
torian clergy. He adds that the Nestorian deacons
wear the alb or dalmatic, called soudra, 'with red and
purple crosses sewn on the breast/ girdle, and a

1 See Christians under the Crescent in Asia, pp. 219, 220.

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 191

short stole over the right shoulder : while priests
wear dalmatic, girdle, stole falling over both shoulders
and crossed on the breast ; moreover, at celebration
the priest has also a chadra (i. e. tent), a large square
of white linen with coloured crosses at the upper
angles. This chadra is ' thrown over the shoulders
and held in front by one hand : at certain places in
the service it is raised so as to cover the head, at
others stretched out so as to form a screen between
priest and people.' The chadra is obviously identi
cal with Dr. Badger's shoshippa or chasuble : but is
neither cope nor chasuble, but a nameless vest
ment peculiar to the Nestorians. But Mr. Cutts
states positively that the Nestorian clergy wear the
cope instead of the chasuble : for although he
strangely calls the vestment 'pallium,' he describes it
clearly as resembling the cope, which the canons of
1603 require the celebrant to wear in our English
cathedrals. Thus the evidence of Asseman seems
established.

Yet one branch of the oriental Church still remains
faithful to the tradition of the chasuble, — the ancient
orthodox Church of Alexandria in Egypt. There the
cope is still worn too, but only as a processional
vestment. Thus on great festivals the patriarch,
entering the church in solemn procession, wears a
cope of richly coloured and embroidered silk, but
lays it aside when he is vested for the mass. The
chasuble worn by the patriarch differs in form from
that of the priest ; for the latter is a true chasuble,
rather of the Russian form, very much curtailed in
front, and barely reaching to the girdle : but the
patriarchal phenolion or phelonion, as they by pre
ference call it, reaches nearly to the ground both

192 Ancient Coptic Ckitrches. [CH. v.

before and behind, and so far recalls the ancient
shape of the vestment. Yet it has been so far
changed and conventionalised, that at the sides and
under the arms it has formal openings, which are
loosely fastened together with silken strings or rib
bons. The front is not pointed, as in the English
chasuble, but rather shield-shaped, the lower edge
being horizontal and the corners turned in curves :
and the vestment when laid out flat would be in
the form of a cross, in which the upper and lower
limb are much larger than the two side branches,
and all the angles are rounded off. This cruciform
chasuble is obviously the result of a long process of
mutilation ; and the difference between the patriarchal
and priestly shape probably arises from the mere
need of lightness in the former, owing to the greater
weight of vestments which the patriarch has to carry.
The treasury of the church of St. Nicholas in Cairo
still possesses some chasubles of the fifteenth or six
teenth century, which are nearer in form to the old
models, and which for sumptuous splendour of ma
terial and colour, for boldness of design and for
delicate fineness of work, must rank among the most
beautiful known embroideries.

Seeing, however, that the phenolion has fallen into
more or less final disuse in the Nestorian, the Ma-
ronite, the Syrian, and the Coptic Church, though
originally deemed essential by all, and still recognised
by the canons ; there seems not a single stay left to
support Neale's assertion, that the usual form of the
phelonion has been retained by the other branches of
the eastern Church, excepting only the Russians, who
have mutilated it, and the Armenians, who have aban
doned it. On the contrary, the disuse of the chasuble

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments: 193

is one of the most marked and most universal depar
tures from primitive custom among all the liturgical
changes in the East. We have seen that it had a
long canonical existence, — an existence indeed never
formally terminated, — and its origin is lost in the
mists that veil the dawn of Christian ceremonial.

Like most vestments, however, it seems to have
arisen from some form of ancient oriental costume, —
a statement which is scarcely weakened by the admis
sion that some vestments may seem more directly
copied from classical models : for classical costume
was eminently oriental. In Greek the name for the
chasuble appears as ^eAowoi/, 0e^6Aio^, (j>ai\6viov, 0aiAo>-
viw, <f)aiv6\iov, (paivaXiov, fyaivoXrjs, &c. The word meant
some sort of heavy overall made to envelop the whole
body. It is, of course, impossible to discuss seriously
the question raised by Cardinal Bona and others,
whether the <pai\6vr)$ left by St. Paul at Troas was
a eucharistic chasuble. The idea is a mere ana
chronism ; for both the ritual and the apparel of the
eucharist were slow developments, as usage after
usage, fostered by reverence, was received and con
secrated by the Church. Thus the phenolion is not
found recorded before the fourth century, and even
then the evidence is not literary but pictorial. The
mosaics in the church of St. George at Thessalo-
nica1, — said to have been built by Constantine, —
represent several figures clothed in sticharion and
phelonion, which vestments seem decidedly of an
ecclesiastical character, although there is little or
nothing to distinguish the dress of bishop, presbyter,
physician, or slave. Yet the fact that each one of

1 See Marriott, Vest. Christ., pi. xviii-xxi, and notes pp. 236-7,

VOL. II. O

194 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

the figures is represented as standing before the
altar in an attitude of intercession, renders it pro
bable that all the martyrs after their death were fitly
regarded as ministers in God's service, and so were
alike represented as vested in sacerdotal costume,
and performing a sacerdotal duty. * Sacerdos vocari
potest sive episcopus sit sive presbyter,' says Ra-
banus1; so too Pope Celestine, St. Gregory, and
other early writers speak of ' sacerdotes' where they
mean bishops ; so that in the fourth century, when
these mosaic pictures were made, the sacerdotal
character of the saints depicted may have been
considered the one thing essential to represent, as ,
opposed to the accidental distinction of higher and
lower orders. Marriott, indeed, alleges unwaver
ingly that these mosaics ' do not represent a dress
of holy ministry2,' and most recent writers agree in
this opinion. There is, however, one point which
they seem to have overlooked. On examining the
details in the background of the pictures, it becomes
clear that the altars there figured are arranged and
furnished in a manner which already betokens a fixed
system of decoration, and a considerable elaboration
of ritual. The steps in front of the altar ; the four
columns at the four corners, and the altar-canopy
above ; the curtains running on rods between the
columns ; the apses, the hanging lamps, and the
screens, — all these denote a well-established cere
monial, and are indeed the very characteristics of
altar decoration which lasted in the eastern churches
for full a thousand years later, and may now be seen,
little changed, in connexion with the Coptic altars

1 Marriott, Vest. Christ., p. 46, note 71.

2 Id. ib. p. Ixxv.

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 195

of Egypt. If then the ritual was so far developed,
when these mosaics were designed, is it not reason
able to conclude that the dress of the priesthood
also was specialised, and distinguished from the dress
of common life ? It seems to me easier to believe
even that the artist was inaccurate in certain details
of the drapery, than that the priests who ministered
at such altars as he has reproduced wore no vest
ments clearly distinctive of their office.

I have already mentioned the white phenolia de
picted in the sixth-century mosaics of St. Sophia
at Constantinople, and the phenolion in the Syriac
miniature, dating about 580 A.D. But it is not till
nearly a century and a half later that we find the
vestment distinctly mentioned as such in any writing.
Then the patriarch Germanus speaks of the phenolion
as emblematic of the scarlet or purple robe in which
our Lord was arrayed before the crucifixion. From
this time onward notices of the supervestment are
numerous. Thus Goar1 mentions that Nicephorus,
patriarch of Constantinople about 800 A.D., sent to
the Roman pontiff a chestnut-coloured phenolion, as
well as a seamless white sticharion, — gifts no doubt
which could be used in the Latin service, and not
mere curiosities. This is one more proof of the fact,
which becomes clearer and clearer as we penetrate
deeper into the past, that Roman and Greek vest
ments were originally the same, or rather that the
vestments, like the ritual and the language of divine
worship at Rome, were adopted from eastern originals.
As regards the colour of the Greek ministering dress,
Goar remarks that red or purple vestments are used

1 Euchol. p. 113.
O 2

196 Ancient Coptic Ch^lrches. [CH. v.

through the season of Lent, but that white is the
normal colour for the rest of the year; and he
cites Symeon of Thessalonica to this effect. Purple
vestments, however, seem to have been regarded in
general as befitting mournful rites, and to have been
worn during the office for the burial of the dead.
Besides the ordinary chasuble now in vogue among
the Greeks there is a particular kind of phelonion,
called the iroXva-ravpiov, worn by bishops ; it is dis
tinguished by being thickly sown with small em
broidered crosses.

As regards the origin and use of the western
chasuble, the materials for its history are so well
known, and have been so thoroughly winnowed by
various writers1, that it is needless here to speak
at length. Suffice it to remark that up to the ninth
century planeta was the term used to designate the
ministerial supervestment ; that from this point the
term casula appears, and ere long the two names
are used interchangeably ; and that, finally, the later
term, from which our 'chasuble' is derived, so far
prevailed as to extinguish the older planeta. The
transition from the secular to the ecclesiastical gar
ment seems slow and hard to mark ; but it is not
surprising to find the most ancient testimony, for the
use of the planeta, as the distinctive vestment of
priests and bishops at the altar, in a remote country
like Spain, where probably the common dress differed
widely from those classical models which in Italy both

1 See Marriott, Vest. Christ., App. C, and p. Ix seq. — G. Gilbert
Scott, Essay on the Hist, of Eng. Ch. Archit., p. 113 seq. — Cham
bers, Divine Worship in England, p. 60 seq. — Bock, Geschichte
der Liturgischen Gewander, i. 427. — Rock, Church of our Fathers,
vol. i. p. 317, &c.

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 197

ruled the fashion of daily life and determined the
form of clerical costume. If, for example, the priestly
attire in Rome during the second century, — which
doubtless differed only slightly from lay attire,—
were introduced into less civilised places like Spain
or Gaul at that epoch, it would at once be marked
off as distinctively sacerdotal by contrast with a
different type of dress in common use among the
Spaniards or the Gauls. Thus an impetus would be
given to the development of an exclusively ecclesi
astical costume, and a certain fixity would be obtained
earlier among remoter communities than at the very
fountain-head, whence they drew their inspiration.
It is in the Acts of the Council of Toledo (633 A. D.)
that the planeta is first recorded as the priestly super-
vestment, though even there it is only mentioned inci
dentally as the familiar ornament of the presbyter,
with nothing to suggest that it may not have been
in use for generations. There is artistic evidence that
the chasuble was worn in Ireland as early as the
eighth century; for to that date belongs the reli
quary of St. Maedoc, on which are represented
figures draped in full flowing chasubles with em
broidered orfreys1. In Scotland priests in chasubles
are found upon some very ancient sculptured stones ;
and in the Book of Deer, dating from the ninth
century, chasubles are worn by the evangelists there
depicted2. France is rich in sculptured evidence
for the chasuble of the same epoch ; for almost
every plaque in the ivory covers of the Sacra-
mentary of Drogon has one or more examples of

1 Warren, Lit. and Kit. of the Celtic Church, p. 112.

2 Westwood, Facsimiles of Anglo-Saxon and Irish MS., pi. li.

198 Ancient Coptic Churches, [rn. v>-

the vestment, and the Sacramentary at Tours, also
belonging to the ninth century, bears further testi
mony to its prevailing use. England is rather
destitute of early ecclesiastical art-remains ; but the
chasuble is found mentioned, apparently as long
established, in the eighth-century Pontifical of Ecg-
bert. It is curious to find, in confirmation of the
Coptic usage as described by Vansleb, that up to
the tenth century, at least, the episcopal chasuble
was distinguished from the sacerdotal by its hood ;
a tradition dating from very early times, as is proved
by the fact that St. Isidore of Seville speaks of the
casula as 'a garment provided with a cowl,' or hood1;
and by the very name for the chasuble in Coptic,
KOYKXion, which is clearly derived from the Byzan
tine Greek KovKov\\iovy which occurs in the writings
of Pachomius, Evagrius, and Palladius — a word
ultimately traceable to the Latin cucullus. The
elaborately embroidered maniple which was found
in the tomb of St. Cuthbert, at Durham, bears
still upon it the figure of St. Sextus, an early
bishop of Rome, arrayed in a chasuble, which
already has suffered some curtailment as compared
with the ancient form, although the figure belongs
to the tenth century. This is said to be the
earliest English example of the chasuble. Others
are contained in the Benedictional of St. Ethelwold
(c. 970 A.D.), the miniatures of which display several
fully vested figures2; and in the somewhat later
pontifical of the Anglo-Saxon Church, — now in the
Rouen Library, — there is a bishop depicted wearing

1 Marriott, Vest. Christ., pi. Ixvi.

2 Bloxam, Ecclesiastical Vestments, pp. 14-16.

CH. >.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 199

a chasuble which, like that of St. Sextus, is consider
ably shorter in front than behind. Another bishop in
the same pontifical is represented in a cope; and
this is the earliest instance known to Bloxam of
that vestment. But surely an example some five
hundred years earlier may be found in* the mosaics
of S. Apollinare in Classe near Ravenna, where
the figure of Melchisedech, who is breaking bread
at an altar, on which lie wafer and chalice, is robed
in a violet cope, clearly defined by its golden border
lines and fastened over the breast by a morse, in the
fashion usual to this very day. A similar vestment
is seen in a mosaic at the church of S. Vitale, Ra
venna, worn in this case also by Melchisedech 1, but
not so distinctly shown, owing to the sideward posi
tion and the uplifted arms of the celebrant.

But although the shortened chasuble appears thus
early in our own country, it had not in Anglo-Saxon
times arrived at that pointed form, with which our
mediaeval monuments have made us familiar. This
further alteration arose not from general reasons of
convenience, but from the specific requirement of
more freedom of action in elevating the host, so that
it might be seen by the people over the head of the
celebrant, who stood with his back towards them.
In Italy the priest faced the people at the moment
of elevation, so that there the same cause did not
operate. Yet even the Roman chasuble has suffered
great diminution, as is proved for instance by the
well-known eleventh-century fresco of St. Clement at
St. Mark's, in Venice. On the other hand, there is
an overwhelming mass of evidence to show that the
ancient ample vestment continued in use in Rome

1 See La Messe, vol. i. pi. iii. and pi. ii.

2OO Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

down to the year 1600 A. D.1: and even at the pre
sent day the Roman rubrics require the full flowing
chasuble. There are also in our own churches many
sepulchral effigies and brasses, which bear witness to
the fact that the ancient chasuble lasted side by side
with the mutilated form of the vestment, almost up
to the period of the reformation.

These chasubles in our own and in all Christian
countries were not always of white : pale and golden
yellow, crimson and purple, were not uncommon
colours. The richest materials, too, were employed,
such as silk, velvet, and cloth of gold; and these
were embroidered with beautiful orfreys, — sometimes
having costly jewels inwoven, — or even covered en
tirely with flowers and other designs in the finest
needlework. No pains or cost were thought too
great to adorn the apparel used at the service of
our altars, and our churches were unrivalled in the
splendour and number of their vestments, as many
records still remaining testify.

THE CROWN OR MITRE.

(Coptic -fjUUrrp,*.2, HI KX^JUL, m

Arabic

Both branches of the ancient Church of Alexandria
in Egypt recognise the mitre as part of the episcopal

1 G. Gilbert Scott, Hist. Eng. Ch. Archit., p. 117 n.

2 Denzinger, ii. 48.

3 Peyron's Coptic Lexicon has also tfpHTie, diadem or o-^Trrpoi/.
If (TK^Trrpov is the etymology of the word, we have another instance
of an entire change of meaning in present usage of the Coptic as
compared with its original.

CH. v.j Ecclesiastical Vestments, 201

insignia ; and in both the mitre is worn by the patri
arch as well as by bishops. There is no reason for
doubting the tradition which derives the use of the
mitre by the patriarch of Alexandria from the presi
dency of Cyril at the Council of Ephesus1, in the
year 431 A. D. : or, if that be too precise a statement
to please historic minds, it may at least be main
tained that the legend points to a very early use of
the mitre in Egypt. Moreover, if we remember the
deadly feud which, twenty years later, rent asunder
the two branches of the Church and kept them in per
manent antagonism ; and if we think how likely it is,
on the one hand, that both lines of patriarchs should
cling to all their ancient privileges, and how unlikely,
on the other hand, that either line should borrow an
innovation from its unorthodox rival ; then the fact
that both the Jacobite and the Melkite Churches do
acknowledge and retain the mitre may be taken as
strengthening the legend, and almost establishing
the existence of some sort of distinctive head-dress
for the patriarch of Alexandria, at least as early as the
first half of the fifth century, before the separation.

There is an antecedent probability that the use
of the mitre arose early in the East, where the
covering for the head has always been a matter
of great dignity and importance, and where the
modern tar bush or fez still remains as the direct
descendant of the ancient Phrygian cap, which the
earliest mitres both in the East and the West
seem to have imitated. It is true that the evidence
upon the question is not very copious ; but enough
may be mustered to repulse all Roman claims to the
mitre as an exclusively Roman vestment. Goar

1 Goar, Euchol., p. 314.

2O2 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

himself cites Allatius as authority for a pontifical
KaXvTTTpa, and further quotes from Coresius of Chios
a story of a dispute between Theophilus, a patriarch
of Alexandria in the tenth century, and the Greek
emperor, who, to settle matters in a friendly way,
conferred a royal crown upon the patriarch, and was
himself received among the members of the patri
arch's sacred college. We are told, too, that up to
869 A. D. the patriarch of Jerusalem wore on solemn
occasions the mitre of St. James.

Turning now to the various rubrics, we find the
mitre clearly mentioned as one of the insignia put
on by the patriarch of Alexandria at his consecra
tion. This is in the Tukian Pontifical. It is worth
remark that none of the ancient Coptic versions of
the order for the consecration of bishops contain
very explicit evidence for the use of the crown or
mitre. The fact may however be accounted for
either by the utter confusion on the subject of the
head-dress, which marks the rubrics in their present
form ; or by the supposition that the privilege of
wearing the mitre was extended to bishops at a late
epoch ; or possibly by the custom now holding, by
which bishops are forbidden to wear the mitre in
presence of the patriarch. Yet in the ritual of the
Syrian Jacobites the imposition of the mitre on the
head of the new bishop is the most solemn act in his
investiture by the patriarch. The mitre is twice men
tioned in the order as given by Morinus1, and twice
also in the text of Renaudot2. Renaudot asserts too

1 Denzinger, Rit. Or., torn. ii. pp. 74, 75.

2 Denzinger cites from Renaudot the words ' imponit illi cidarim
$eu mitram, alligatque illi epomidem' but adds in a note ' ornamentum
de quo agitur (sc. mitra) est Maznaphtho, amictus phrygio opere

CH. y. j Ecclesiastical Vestments. 203

that in several Syriac manuscripts the mitre is men
tioned under the name ' togo ' (obviously the same
-as the Arabic * tag ') as one of the episcopal orna
ments. Asseman is therefore probably mistaken in
denying the mitre to Syrian bishops ; and there seems
no question that it was worn by their patriarch.

It is extremely unfortunate that nearly all the
really ancient Coptic paintings have perished, and
that bronze or stone monuments — carved shrines or
effigies of great ecclesiastics — are simply unknown
in Coptic history. Yet from such scanty relics as
the hand of time has spared some little evidence
may be gathered for the early use of the mitre.
Thus one of the saints whose figures are carved upon
the panels now in the iconostasis at the church of
Abu Sargah seems to wear some kind of head-dress

ornatus] thus asserting that by ' mitra ' of the text is meant an
amice with an embroidered orfrey. This mistake is sufficiently
refuted by the remainder of the sentence quoted from the rubric —
' alligatque illi epomidem? Epomis is obviously the amice, and is
quite distinct from the ' cidaris sen mitra' The synonym too
proves that the mitra answers to our mitre. As regards the patri
archal mitre, there is no conflict among our authorities. I think,
therefore, that Mr. Cutts must be mistaken in stating that the
Jacobite Syrian patriarch ' does not wear a mitre but a veil on his
head, which is thrown off at the reading of the Gospel/ (Chris
tians under the Crescent in Asia, p. 84.) He describes this veil as
' set with plates and bosses of silver/ Doubtless it corresponds
with the Coptic ballin, and is the common vestment of the patriarch,
whereas the mitre is only used on great festivals. It is a mistake
into which a traveller might fall very easily from seeing the patriarch
celebrate without a mitre, and from failing to find any example of
such an ornament. In the same way, the Coptic patriarch seldom
wears the crown to celebrate, and in all the scores of visits that
I have paid to various churches I have only seen one example of
any mitre. Yet beyond all shadow of doubt the mitre is worn, not
only by the Coptic patriarch, but also by the bishops.

204 Ancient Coptic Churches, [CH. v.

resembling a low diadem. They date from the
eighth century, and may be denoted as patriarchs
by the cross upon the long spear-like staff which-
they carry. Probably of the same date, or a little
later, is the ancient pillar-painting at Al Mu'allakah1,
now much defaced, but still showing very clearly
the patriarchal pall, and a nimbed head wearing a
jewelled diadem. The diadem consists of a band of
silver or gold divided into tiny compartments, each
enclosing a precious stone — something like the dia
dem on the head of Justinian in the mosaic picture at
S. Vitale, Ravenna, — and the intention is so obvious
that, if this monument stood quite alone, it would
alone suffice to prove the use of the crown as a
distinctly recognised vestment at a time when the
metal mitre at least was quite unknown in Europe.
Between this fresco and pictures on panel, dating
from the fifteenth or sixteenth century, there is a
gulf void of artistic evidence. But thenceforward
patriarchs, and patriarchal figures of St. Mark and of
our Lord, become common : and they generally wear a
golden crown beset with jewels. The shape however
of the crown had by this time changed : and instead
of the low diadem, — a narrow band or fillet of metal
encircling the brow, — we find a solid covering for
the head more resembling the royal crown of modern
times. There is no instance in Coptic painting of
the two-peaked mitre, familiar to us in Roman usage
and in our own brass effigies and heraldic designs.

But though the mitre of western shape is quite
unknown to Coptic bishops, the exact form of their
own head-dress is not fixed after any rigorous model.

1 See illustrations, vol. i. p. 191, and vol. ii. p. 156.

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 205

The Copts in fact do not, strictly speaking, use the
word * mitre ' at all : with them the mitre is a tag or
crown : and the crown may be made after many
patterns, so long as it preserves the essential idea of
a kingly head-dress, the symbol of sovereign power.

Fig. 28.— The Crown of the Coptic Patriarch.

Nor is there any recognised or necessary difference
in the form of the crown as worn by bishops and
as worn by the patriarch. The only distinction is
one of usage, which forbids a bishop either to wear
his crown or to hold his staff outside his own
diocese, or during the presence within it of the
patriarch, by whom his authority is overshadowed.

206 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.V.

It must therefore be clearly understood that the
form of the patriarchal crown given in the illustration
has been determined by the artist's fancy, and has
no symbolic or ritual significance whatever. The
crown, which is of solid silver gilt and is covered with
various enrichments, was sent as a gift from king
John of Abyssinia, by whose order it was made, to
the present patriarch Cyril. Much of the work -upon
it is extremely fine, and the whole produces an effect
of real, though somewhat barbaric, magnificence.
The body of the crown is cylindrical : the top is
domed : and above the dome, which ends in a beau
tiful boss of filigree work, rises a little open tower
supporting a cross set with five large diamonds.
The cylindrical part is divided into two sections by
three horizontal fillets or bands of raised work : each
band is thickly studded with paste jewels of various
colours separated by finely wrought metal bosses : a
profusion of short tiny chains with pendants hang
from the lower rim of every band, while on the upper
rim stands a delicate open parapet of very minute
workmanship. Vertically, the walls of the crown are
divided by raised bands into eight sections, which are
alternately filled with a spiral design of filigree work
and chased with rude engravings of the Virgin and
Child or other sacred figures. The front of the
crown is distinguished by a small curved projection
upon the lowest fillet. The dome is ornamented by
a number of lines radiating from the centre, and the
spaces between them are filled with a chased design
of very graceful scrollwork. A glance at the illustra
tion will show the triple character of this pontifical
crown : but that character is due merely to a local
accident, — the affectation of this form of crown by

CH. v.j Ecclesiastical Vestments. 207

the kings of Abyssinia1, — and must not suggest
any comparison with the triple crown of the Roman
pontiff.

The practice of the Melkite Church of Alexandria
agrees with that of the Coptic Church in granting the
mitre or crown to bishops, as well as to the patriarch ;
but dissents in having a specific form of mitre for the
patriarch, different from the episcopal crown, and
called by a distinguishing name. For the patriarchal
mitre is called tiara, the episcopal mitra : and the
distinction of shape is this, that the tiara is lofty and
conical, resembling the western mitre without any
cleft or horns at the top ; while the mitra is a real
crown, low, and rather globular than conical. It is
impossible to say when this distinction arose, or for
what reason. The only tiara which I have seen in
Cairo is quite modern : it is made of crimson velvet,
with a zone of silver or gold about an inch broad
encircling the head, and from this zone four metal
bands rise and meet at the top of the cone, upon
which there stands a jewelled cross. Each of the
four vertical divisions of the tiara encloses a porcelain
medallion, painted with sacred figures, and set round
with precious stones. The mitra has all the charac
teristics of a royal crown : it is generally made of
silver gilt, more rarely of very rich velvet, covered
with elaborate gold embroidery, and studded thick
with jewels. The mitra, though of metal, is never of
openwork : the ground is a solid plate of silver or
gold, casque-like in this regard, and not a circlet with

1 The gold crown of king Theodore, captured at Magdala, has
the same peculiarity. It may be seen at the South Kensington
Museum.

208 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

bands of metal coming down from the top to meet it.
There is at the church of St. Nicholas in Cairo
a large collection of these crowns, some of which are
ancient and exceedingly beautiful. The oldest there
is a most magnificent specimen of silver-work and
jewellery. The head-piece is of solid silver : round
the bottom runs a circlet enclosing an exquisite
design of small flowers repousse. Immediately above
this is another zone of the richest blue enamel, in
which is wrought some sacred writing in Greek
characters. Above this comes a third narrow band
of delicate work, raised, and standing out from the
ground ; and all the points and angles of the design
enclosed are set with lustrous jewels. The globe
or main body of the crown is marked off into four
equal compartments by vertical bands descending
from a circlet near the top. These bands are of
open silver work, soldered on to the ground, like the
third of the narrow circlets just mentioned. In the
centre of each compartment, and slightly raised, is an
oval medallion of superb enamel, in which the Virgin,
our Lord, and other sacred figures are wrought in
soft yet resplendent colours, red, green, and blue ; and
round every medallion runs a border of costly gems.
The circlet round the top of .the crown, too, which
receives the four vertical bands, is richly jewelled on
the edges, while the interior consists of blue enamel
enclosing a text from Holy Writ in Greek letters.
But the topmost point is covered with a large boss,
which tapers upwards in three low stages, all set
with precious stones, and on the summit stands a
small cross. From the style of the enamelling and
of the workmanship generally, I think that this most
sumptuous and splendid mitre may be assigned to

CH. v.j Ecclesiastical Vestments. 209

the eleventh or twelfth century: but no description
and no picture can convey any idea of its beauty.

In the same treasury I saw several other crowns, all
of rich metal work or jewelled embroidery, and some
of them ancient. In every case the crown is sur
mounted by a cross, which is a characteristic feature
of the bishop's head-dress, both Greek and Coptic.

It is, then, very clear that in both branches of the
Church of Egypt the use of the mitre is not merely
known, but ascends at least to a very considerable
antiquity. It is clear, too, that Neale's account of the
matter is very inadequate, when all he tells us is that
'the patriarch of Alexandria employs a cap resembling
a crown, and never removes it during the liturgy1.'
The Melkite patriarch of Alexandria wears no sort
of cap, but only the tiara : and the Coptic patriarch
wears a crown on all solemn occasions, and the only
kind of cap which ever covers his head is a sort of
tarbush concealed within the hood of the cope.
There is, however, a cap recognised as a liturgical
vestment at the present day, and dating from a very
remote epoch. It is first mentioned by a Coptic
writer of the twelfth century, a bishop of Akhmim2,
who gives it in a list of sacerdotal vestments
and describes it as ' adorned with small crosses.'
Renaudot merely cites this very interesting passage
without criticism3, having no further evidence upon
the subject. For a like reason, doubtless, Denzinger

1 Eastern Church: Gen. Introd., vol. i. p. 313,

2 This author is repeatedly cited by Renaudot, as ' Echmimensis/
Denzinger gives his full name as * Ferge Allah Echmimi/ which
should doubtless be Farag Allah Akhmimi.

3 Lit, Or., torn. i. p. 163. 'Mentio fit praeterea cidaris quam
sacerdos imponit capiti et quae cruciculis ornata est,'

VOL. 11. P

2io Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

prefers to reject the Coptic bishop's testimony, and
to explain away the priest's cap as a mere mis
understanding of the epomis, or amice1. Such a
confusion is extremely improbable, for the same
authority mentions the amice in his list as a separate
vestment of the priesthood. When all known au
thorities beside are absolutely dumb on the subject,
and when not a grain of evidence could be found in
any quarter, it was only natural for Denzinger to be
suspicious of so isolated a statement : nevertheless
the bishop was right, and the critic is wrong. The
proof of this is remarkable, but quite modern : it has
to leap across seven centuries of silence ; but I think
it strong enough to pass with an electric flash of
conviction. For a cap exactly answering the descrip
tion of the Coptic writer seven hundred years ago is
now used in the service of the Church, not as a rule
by priests, whose heads are generally covered by the
shamlah or amice, but by deacons. For instance, in
the church of Abu-'s-Sifain among the vestments is
a cap of crimson velvet, shaped like the ordinary
tarbush, but having the upper and lower rim encircled
by a band of silver lace, and the sides divided
into four compartments by vertical bands of lace :
within each compartment is a cross of solid
silver with smaller starlike crosses between all
the branches, and another cross of silver lace
is fastened on the top. A very similar cap of
crimson velvet with four divisions may be seen
at St. Stephen's church by the cathedral : but

1 Rit. Or., torn. i. p. 130. ' Mentio fit etiam teste Renaudotio
apud Echmimensem cidaris cruciculis ornatae, quatn sacerdos
capiti imponit, de quo (sic) tamen varia nobis dubia occurrunt,
videturque nihil aliud esse nisi pilogion.'

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 211

in this example only two of the divisions are filled
with crosses, the other two containing each a figure
of the six-winged seraphim. But in every case the
predominant impression is that the cap is ' adorned
with small crosses,' precisely as described in the
twelfth century. I have no doubt at all that the
vestment was originally a priest's cap exclusively-
such as existed in our English ritual of old, though
traces of it are not common in our monuments1;—
and as the use of the shamlah prevailed more and

AJD

Fig. 29.— Priestly Cap.

more, was relegated to deacons, just as the priestly
mode of wearing the stole seems to have descended
even to sub-deacons. Indeed it is very probable that
the priestly cap itself is a descendant from the earlier
episcopal crown : and the mere fact that priests were
able to wear in the twelfth century the ' cap adorned
with small crosses' — obviously a head-dress of some
splendour — constitutes in itself a powerful argument
for the antiquity of the Coptic mitre.

1 There is a brass in Hackney church, dated 1521 A.D. (figured
in Waller's Monumental Brasses), in which a priest is shown wear
ing a low rather closefitting cap with a point on the top.

P 2

212 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

It is worth while dwelling a moment on the curious
gap in the history of the priestly cidaris as an illus
tration of what may be called the accidents of evi
dence upon questions of ritual. Had Farag Allah's
statement stood absolutely alone, as Denzinger
thought, the temptation to reject it, as he does, is
almost irresistible : it seems so much safer to argue
that, if such a vestment had existed, it must have
been noticed by other writers. If, on the other hand,
the mere existence of the cap as a present appurten
ance of worship were the sole fact known about it,
while pictures and books of the past were silent ;
then the critic would conclude with a great show of
reason that the cap was a mere modern invention of
no authority. Thus in either alternative, however
faultless the logic, the conclusion would be wrong :
and it is only the accidental coincidence of the two
facts, divided by seven centuries, that establishes
the truth, which either singly would seem to deny.

It remains to touch lightly on the use of the
crown or mitre in other Churches of the East and in
the West. I have already spoken of the Syrians as
recognising the mitre, on the testimony of Renau-
dot and Morinus ; and although Denzinger alleges
Jacques de Vitry and Asseman against Renaudot,
he is, as usual, uncertain and even contradictory, and
his reasoning is quite unable to shake the solid
authority of the great French ritualist ]. Or even

1 Briefly Denzinger writes as follows (Rit. Or., torn. i. pp. 131-2):
Renaudot mentions among the bishop's ornaments the ' Thogo, corona
sive mitral According to Asseman ' mitras non deferunt Syri Jaco-
bitae ' except the Catholics. Renaudot speaks of mitram sive cidarim'
which is doubtful. Doubtful too is Morinus rendering of the Syriac
1 Maznaphtho ' or amice by cidaris. Jacques de Vitry expressly states

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 213

if there be not sufficient evidence to prove conclu
sively the use of the mitre by Syrian bishops, there
is no question that the tiara is worn by the patriarch,
both Jacobite and Maronite ; and this fact creates a
strong presumption that the privilege of wearing a
crown was granted to bishops also, a presumption
which is rendered almost certain by the identity of
the Syriac togo, as given by Renaudot, with the
Arabic tag, — the name for the episcopal crown in
the two languages.

The mitre is a customary ornament of the bishop
among the Maronites, and is placed on his head at
ordination, according to ancient rubrics. Regarding
the Nestorian practice there is some ambiguity
arising from the difficulty of interpreting the terms
used in the pontificals. Denzinger says plainly,
* Mitras non gerunt nisi Chaldaei Romanae ecclesiae
uniti x '. Yet, from the close conjunction of the
biruna with the pastoral staff in the rubrics, it is
hard to doubt that the biruna means some sort
of head-dress resembling a mitre, rather than an
amice as alleged by Denzinger. Thus we read,

that Syrian bishops, except the Maronites, do not use mitre or ring.
Then follows immediately the list of the Syrian patriarch's pon
tifical vestments, which I give word for word : Apud Syros Maro-
nitas et Jacobitas patriarcha insignitur Masnaphta (sic) seu amictu
simili Birunae Nestorianorum, Phaina seu Pliainolio, orario seu
epitrachelio pontificio ad instar omophorii seu pallii Graecorum, tiara
seu mitra, et baculo pastorali : and in the same page the Biruna is
defined as cidaris phrygio opere ornata instar amictus, and the
Maznaphtho as amictus phrygio opere ornatus. It is clear at least
that Denzinger has no argument to bring against Renaudot's state
ment : and that when he charges Morinus with confounding
cidaris and amictus, he reserves the right of the same confusion as
his private privilege.

1 Rit. Or., torn. i. p. 132.

214 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

' episcopi . . . ordinati birunis et baculis': ' induit
birunam et tradit virgam in manum ems dexteram':
' ornati birunis et baculis': ' episcopi suo ornatu et
birunis induti et baculos tenentes': ' patres vero
ornantur maaphris, birunis, baculis': ' princeps me-
tropolitarum . . . induit eum biruna, et tradit illi
baculum1.' These passages cannot, of course, prove
the usage of what we call a mitre, but they do prove
the usage of some closely corresponding ornament.
Among the Armenians the mitre is said to have
been first adopted in the eleventh century. How
ever that may be, at the present time their bishops
wear both mitre and ring -, and are singular in the
latter usage among all the oriental Churches. But
the infulae or strings, which once depended from the
mitre, have now become detached, and, curiously
enough, are represented by strips of brocade fastened
on to the shoulders of the cope 3. None of the
other Churches of the East ever had anything
corresponding to the western mitre-strings, their
head-dress being rather a crown than a mitre : and
the singularity of the Armenians in using this mitre
of western form, together with the episcopal ring,
seems to give point to the legend which makes this
mitre in the first instance a gift from Rome. The
Armenians however agree with the Copts in the use
of the priest's cap, which they term ' sagavard.'
Both bishops and priests remove their head-dress
from the Cherubic Hymn to the end of the service.

1 Denzinger, Kit. Or., torn. ii. pp. 238, 244, 245, 249, 250, 255.

2 Id., torn. i. p. 133.

3 Fortescue, Armenian Church, p. 134. The reason of this
change may be conjectured from a perusal of Neale's remarks,
Gen. Introd., vol. i. p. 313.

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 215

As regards the Greek Church proper, Neale states
that the mitre is unknown, but bishops wear ' a kind
of bonnet,' which he illustrates by a woodcut, but
does not further describe, nor even name. Except for
the absence of the cross on the top, it bears consider
able likeness to the crown of the orthodox Alexan
drians, but presumably it is of some soft material
and not of metal. This seems borne out by Rock1,
who calls the Greek head-dress a round hat or cap,
and states that it is known by the name ' tiara'

Turning our eyes now to the West, we shall find
the closest analogy with Coptic practice in the
earliest times and in the remotest countries. ' The
Celtic bishops wore crowns instead of mitres V
What a change of world is wrought by the change
of two letters, from Coptic to Celtic ! In the sixth-
century life of St. Sampson that saint is represented
as having seen in a dream ' three eminent bishops
adorned with golden crowns.' Mr. Warren mentions
the figure of 'an Irish bishop thus crowned on a
sculptured bas-relief of great antiquity, part of a
ruined chapel in the valley of Glendalough/ and
is of opinion that the crown was used in the Anglo-
Saxon Church up to the tenth century. Thus in the
Benedictional of St. Ethelwold an ecclesiastic is
depicted wearing a golden and jewelled diadem.
Rock 3 too says that the early bishops wore crowns
of gold set with jewels ; but adds that a kerchief
or head-linen was also borne by the Anglo-Saxon

1 Church of our Fathers, vol. ii. p. 62.

2 See Mr. Warren's Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church,
p. 119, and the interesting notes on that and the following page,
from which I have freely quoted.

3 Church of our Fathers, vol. ii. p. 91.

216 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

prelates : it was tied with a fillet, the ends of which
hung behind. The figure of St. Dunstan in the
Cottonian MS. *, painted in the eleventh century,
is shown wearing a round cap with two latchets
hanging behind. In an eleventh-century fresco at
S. Clemente in Rome the papal mitre is represented
as a high conical cap 2. There is a twelfth-century
enamel in the Louvre in which Melchisedech, stand
ing at the altar and administering the cup and wafer
to Abraham, wears dalmatic, alb, chasuble, and a
crown upon his head : but the crown here is doubt
less rather a symbol of kingly than of priestly
dignity. A sculptured figure over the portal of
St. Denys of the same epoch shows a low but
decided mitre 3, having already indications of the
horns, which started about that time ; and in a
contemporary mosaic at St. Mark in Venice a pre
cisely similar mitre is depicted. From the twelfth
century onward the mitre is of frequent occurrence
in pictures, brasses 4, and monuments of all kinds,
and the gradual evolution of the form now most
familiar is very distinctly traceable. Ever since the
mitre has been formally recognised as an ecclesias
tical vestment in the West, the custom has been for
the bishop to wear it at the mass, removing it only
at the moment of office. Its usage nevertheless was

1 Westwood, Facsimiles, pi. 50.

2 La Messe, vol. i. pi. xii. 3 Id. ib., pi. xiii, xiv.

4 The earliest known brass is that of Archbishop Ysowilpe, in
the church of St. Andrew, at Verden, near Bremen, who died 1231.
He wears a low flat mitre, yet with two decided peaks. Next in
date comes the brass of Bishop Otto, of Hildesheim (1271), in
which the mitre is slightly higher, but the peaks still are wide
apart. About a century later we find the peaks sloping inwards
and nearly meeting, as at present.

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 2 1 7

not confined by the church walls, but it was worn
out of doors on festival occasions.

THE CROZIER OR STAFF OF AUTHORITY.
(Coptic ni oj&urr1 : Arabic ^IXsJl.)

The Coptic patriarch and all his bishops carry the
pastoral staff; but the same rule which controls the
wearing of the mitre by bishops, limits also the usage
of the staff. For it is only in his own diocese, and
when that diocese is not overshadowed by the
visible presence of the patriarch within it, that a
bishop may carry the staff, which the Copts call
emphatically 'the staff of authority/ In the West
the symbolism of the staff has always been a matter
of some controversy : among the Copts both the
term by which the staff is known, and the limitation
placed upon its usage, agree in determining the
emblem as that of jurisdiction. There seems no
idea of pastoral care associated with the staff : and
in fact the rod carried by the Coptic bishop denotes
a royal sceptre, just as his head-dress denotes a
kingly crown.

Accordingly the episcopal staff never under any
circumstances has the crook-like form familiar in all
western monuments. Its shape will be understood
at once from the statement that it resembles the
Greek and not the Latin type of crozier 2, i.e. that
the upper end terminates as a tau-cross with two

1 This again is a foreign word, but curiously enough nearer
Hebrew than Greek : it corresponds to DDK>.

2 The use of this word is sometimes, but wrongly, limited to
the archiepiscopal cross as opposed to the episcopal staff in the

218 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

short symmetrical branches, instead of rounding off
to a crook or spiral volute. But in the Coptic
crozier these two branches are nearly always in the
form of serpents' necks with heads retorted, and in
the centre between the two heads is a small round
boss surmounted by a cross. By a curious coinci
dence with western usage a flag or veil — the Latin
pannicellus — is fastened on to the staff near the top
at the natural place for grasping it. The veil is
made of silk, and often of a green colour.

Enough has been now said to indicate the points of
difference between the Greek and Egyptian crozier,
and the peculiarities of the latter. First, if Neale
is to be trusted *, the Greek pastoral staff * in walk
ing is used to lean upon, and is not much higher
than the hand.' Curzon2, though not very clear
upon the point, seems also to speak of a short patri
archal staff. Both authors give cuts showing the
'pateressa' or ' patritza,' as they variously call it,
but unfortunately without any scale of measure
ment. Neale's woodcut, however, is obviously taken
from Gear's3 figure of the patriarch Bekkos in walk
ing costume, and there the staff can only be about
3 ft. 6 inches in height. Goar's words, too, in another
place4, point to the same conclusion : ' pastorali autem
virgae Pontifex innititur progrediens : eius summa
pars juxta manum transverso ligno sive eboreis ser-
pentibus in sese capitibus mutuo retortis, ayKvp&v
est ornata.' Again, he remarks5 that the

West. I shall not scruple to employ the term in its broader sense.
For etymology, see Smith's Diet. Christ. Antiq. s. v. Pastoral Staff.

1 Eastern Church : Gen. Introd., vol. i. p. 314.

2 Monasteries of the Levant, p. 299.

3 Euchol., p. 115. 4 Ib.; p. 314. 5 Ib., p. 313.

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 219

'pateressa' (appropriately so called 'a paterna sol-
licitudine'), or ' dikanikion,' i.e. emblem of jurisdic
tion, is carried by bishops and abbots ; it is, moreover,
shorter than the Latin crozier, and not so richly
adorned with precious metal or gems, and conse
quently is used in walking. All this is different
from the Coptic staff, which is usually about 5 ft. 6 in.
long, and is not used except as an ornament of
church ceremonial. The patriarch, when he drives
abroad, — for to walk is beneath his oriental dignity,—
has with him a servant who carries a tall, plain,
silver-headed staff or mace, but does not take his
crozier. Another difference is this, that while the
Coptic form agrees with the Greek in the character
istic design of the serpents' heads, the little cross
between the heads seems an Egyptian peculiarity.
A third point of contrast is the veil, of which I can
find no mention in accounts of the Greek pateressa.
It is, however, interesting to find that in the other
branch of the Church of Egypt, the orthodox Greek
or Melkite, the form of the episcopal staff exactly
corresponds with that of the Coptic bishop's : for it
has the cross and the veil, and is from 5 ft. to 6 ft.
in height. Examples of the Jacobite crozier are so
rare that I have never seen a single ancient speci
men ; but the Melkites, by better fortune or more
careful reverence, have preserved from past times
several beautiful staves, which are now in the trea
sury of the church of St. Nicholas at Cairo. In
every case these staves have the lower end pointed,
while the rod is divided into five portions by four
knops or bosses at about equal intervals. These
knops, and the serpents' heads, are generally en
riched with jewels. I saw one staff of ancient ivory

22O Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH..V.

with silver bosses finely jewelled ; another of ivory
stained green with jewelled silver bosses ; two or
three of ebony with silver bosses
and silver serpents ; and another
of solid ivory most superbly carved,
the bosses also of ivory, the cross
above standing on a little crown
of delicate pierced work. As a
rule the stem between the bosses
is hexagonal, not round.

Though I have called these ex
amples ancient, it is not likely
that any of them go back more
than three or four centuries, for
they are distinctly mediaeval in
character and correspond closely
with croziers pourtrayed in mediae
val Coptic paintings 1. There is,
for instance, in the church of St.
Stephen by the cathedral in Cairo,
a painting of St. Mark,, robed as
patriarch of Alexandria, and hold
ing in his left hand a crozier of
this kind. But although no very
antique example of the crozier
now remains, I have no doubt
that the design dates from the
early days of Christianity. It
* has already been suggested 2 that

Fig. 30.— Coptic Crozier. J

1 Occasionally, however, the Coptic staff is depicted merely with
a double volute, i. e. without the snakes, as at Mari Mina. On the
patriarchal seal the staff has a single snake-headed volute : but this
design is unknown elsewhere.

2 Diet. Christ. Antiq. s.v. Pastoral Staff.

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 221

the western pastoral staff should be referred for its
prototype not to the shepherd's crook, or the royal
sceptre, but rather to the lituus or augur's wand
of classical times. Similarly, I think the eastern
crozier may be referred to the herald's wand, the
orKfjTTTpov or pd/SSos of Hermes, the cadiiceus of
the Latin Mercury, and referred with a certainty
greater in proportion as the resemblance is closer
and more striking. For in early as well as late
classical works of art the rod of Hermes is repre
sented as entwined with two serpents whose uplifted
heads face each other1. This coincidence of design

1 See Adam's Roman Antiquities (roth edit, London, 1839),
p. 220, pi. ii; and Smith's Classical Dictionary, pi. opposite p. 336.
Dr. Smith is wrong in his statement about limiting the occurrence
of the snakes to late works of art. His words are, ' In late works
of art the white ribbons which surrounded the herald's staff were
changed into two serpents' (p. 313). Now in the very earliest
works of art the wand appears with a head in the form of the figure $,
which may or may not be intended for the pair of snakes, but can
not possibly be meant for ribbons. This form, for example, is
frequent on coins of the sixth century B.C. : it occurs also on a
vase in the so-called Chalcidian style about 550 B.C. Perhaps the
earliest certain instance of the serpent-wand is on the Francis
vase, which cannot be later than 500 B.C. (see Monumenti Inediti,
iv. liv.) : here it is carried by Iris, while Hermes carries a staff of
the same design, but not apparently finished off with serpents'
heads. There is now in the British Museum a KrjpvKfiov of bronze,
about 2 ft. long, on which the snakes are distinctly figured : from
the lettering of the Greek inscription upon it, it must be as early
as 450 B.C. For the foregoing information I am indebted to Mr.
Cecil Smith, of the British Museum.

It is quite clear, then, that the snake-headed wand was familiar
long before even the foundation of Alexandria : and I have no
doubt that its adoption in the mystic cults of the Great City
accounts for its presence at this day in the ritual of the Coptic
Christians.

222 Ancient Coptic Chitrches. [CH. v.

is obviously much stronger than in the case of the
lituus, where the comparison depends merely on
the vague fact that the lituus was curved. More
over, the comparison in the one case is weakened
by the fact that the augur was obliged to carry his
wand in the right hand ; it is strengthened in the
other case by the fact that Hermes is always de
picted carrying his staff in the left hand. What
was the exact symbolism of the two serpents
attached to the herald's wand among the Greeks
is not very certain ; but this much is clear, that the
wand was carried by heralds and ambassadors in
virtue of their office, and as an emblem of peace1.

1 See Smith, Diet, of Greek and Roman Antiquities, p. 218, and
the cut there given from Millin's Peintures des Vases Antiques,
where the KrjpvKeiov is about 4 ft. long on the scale given by the
figure. This length contrasted with the shortness of the lituus is
another point in which my comparison has the advantage of the
other. Hyginus says the serpents were regarded as an emblem of
peace, because Mercury once found two serpents fighting and
separated them with his staff. Macrobius derives the symbolism
from Egypt : (Saturn. I. xix.) ' In Mercurio solem coli etiam ex
caduceo claret, quod Aegypiii in specie draconum marts et feminae
figuraverunt ' : alluding apparently to the winged disk of the sun
with the Uraeus serpent on either side. In a note Preller cites

Schol. On Thuc. i. 53 xrjpvKiov eari £v\ov opObv f\ov fKOTfpu>6fv 8vo
o(p(is 7rfpnrfTr\€yfj.(vovs KOI avTnrpocru\Kovs Trpbs u\\rj\ovs Kfipevovs, onep

(luQavi (pfpeiv ol KrjpvKfs p.€T avT&v. This wand was not used by
Roman heralds. Thus Pliny remarks, 'Hie complexus anguium et
efferatorum concordia causa videtur esse quare exterae gentes caduceum
in pads arguments circumdata effigie anguium fecer int. Neque enim
cristatos esse in caduceo mos est? (Nat. Hist. xxix. 12 fin.) Of
course it is possible that the Greek KrjpvKdov may, after all, have
derived its form from Egypt, and be a relic of some early ophidian
worship : or the tau-cross, which seems to have been used from a
very high antiquity in Egypt, may have become associated with

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 223

Its official character alone may have caused it to
be adopted by the Church of Alexandria as their
bishops' ' staff of authority ;' and as an emblem of
peace, it is at least not unsuitable to the heralds
of the gospel message.

Another interpretation associates the eastern
crozier with the idea of the brazen serpent raised
aloft by Moses. This seems to me both less
probable and less appropriate. Yet it is only fair
to remember that in the West at least the symbol
of the brazen serpent had an ancient place of honour
in church ceremonial ; it is found, for instance, in
an Anglo-Saxon ritual, and was retained, even in
England, up to the sixteenth century1. For on
Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Eve,
after the singing of nones, a procession went to the
church door carrying a staff which ended upwards
in a serpent ; in the serpent's mouth was set a taper,
which was solemnly kindled, and from this all other
candles were lighted1. A similar ceremony seems
clearly implied by a rubric in the Mozarabic liturgy,
and the serpent-rod was used at Rouen as late as the
eighteenth century. It is worth enquiring whether
the curious serpent candlestick at Mari Mina, of
which I have given an illustration elsewhere 2, may

the serpent in the symbolism of some sect of early Egyptian
mystics. The tau-cross in its Egyptian form was undoubtedly
adopted as a religious symbol by the primitive Christians of
Egypt.

1 Lit. and Kit. of the Celtic JChurch, p. 53. The expression in the
note ' has tarn cum imagine serpentis] seems to suggest a reference to
the brazen serpent. I have quoted largely from this page of Mr.
Warren's work.

2 Vol. i. p. 59-

224 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

not originally have been intended for the same
ceremonial usage on Easter Eve ; but there is no
decisive evidence on the point forthcoming. No
doubt the express comparison made by our Lord
of his own uplifting on the cross to the uplifting of
the brazen serpent sufficed to coin the emblem, and
to coin it with a very clear impression. Thus St.
Ambrose distinctly says, ' The brazen serpent is a
figure of the cross, and a fitting symbol of the body
of -Christ;' and even Tertullian admits its appro
priateness. But, granting both the existence and
the fitness of the emblem in itself, what one does
not see is its suitability as applied to the episcopal
office. It would seem something very like arrogance
for a bishop to appropriate so obviously sacred a
symbol.

Yet a third interpretation remains in the case of
the Coptic crozier as faintly possible but extremely
improbable. It is just conceivable that the idea
might be that of the triumph of the cross over the
dragon, the victory of Christ over the power of the
Evil One. This, however, would imply that the
second serpent was merely added for the sake of
symmetry, and it would imply also an entire differ
ence of symbolism in the Coptic and Greek crozier,—
there being no cross upon the latter, and any such
difference is in the last degree unlikely. On the
whole, then, it seems fairest to suppose that the
eastern episcopal staff has come down in unbroken
succession from the herald's wand of pagan Hellas.
There is thus not the slightest necessity for tracing
its development back to the ordinary crutch or walk
ing stick. Such a supposition would quite fail to
account for the serpents, and is decidedly weakened

CH. v.j Ecclesiastical Vestments. 225

by the fact that the crutch in the form of a tau-cross
remains side by side with the crozier to this day
a familiar appurtenance of worship in every Coptic
church. Nor is its use confined, as was originally
the case in England, to ' aged and sickly ecclesi
astics/ as Rock declares1; but the length of the
Coptic services, and the general absence of seats,
make it welcome even to the young and hale.
Had it once been consecrated to the bishop's office,
it would scarcely have continued in the hand of
every layman.

It is curious that the rubrics in the known Coptic
pontificals are silent on the subject of the crozier.
The reason of this no doubt is that when the ordina
tion is accomplished, and the bishop or patriarch is
seated on his throne, he is required to hold, not the
staff, but the book of the gospel ; and similarly this
book is a more common ornament than the staff in
Coptic paintings. But that the staff really formed part
of the bishop's investiture, we learn from Vansleb ;
who relates that after the ordination service the
bishop proceeds to the patriarch's abode, and is there
presented with a ' small bronze cross and with a staff
in the form of the letter T.' The same author tells us
that when the patriarch is fully arrayed at his inves
titure, he takes from the altar ' a large iron cross
which serves among the Copts in place of the
pastoral staff.' It may be true that such a cross
figures in the ordination ceremony, but it is not true
that the patriarchal staff differs from the episcopal in
the manner alleged. St. Michael is sometimes painted

1 Church of Our Fathers, vol. ii. p. 184, note 22. Rock says
that the use of the crutch lasted till the middle of the twelfth cen-1
tury : but notice that his authorities are all French.
VOL. ir. Q

226 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

carrying the Jerusalem patriarchal cross with three
transoms : and in the eighth-century carved panels
at Abu Sargah each of the three horsemen, probably
St. George, St. Mercurius, and St. Demetrius, carries
a long staff ending upwards in a cross, and almost
exactly resembling that borne by St. Gregory, as
figured in the Hierolexicon1 : but the staff here is
probably only a spear with a fanciful embellishment.
Evidence such as this is not sufficient to refute the
express testimony of present custom, and of the most
ancient paintings, in favour of the serpentine design
of the patriarchal staff. Moreover, Vansleb's words,
if true, would prove too much, denying the familiar
form of crozier altogether.

As regards the other eastern Churches, the inves
titure with the pastoral staff is a matter of some cere
mony among the Syrian Jacobites : it is delivered
to the bishop during the service, with the words,
' The Lord hath sent thee a rod of strength out of
Sion.' When the patriarch is being ordained, every
bishop present grasps the staff with his right hand,
and all hold it together : then the senior bishop
raises the patriarch's hand above all the others, and
rests it on the top of the staff, and the rite is thus
accomplished2.

Among the Maronites the staff is allowed to ' peri-
odeutae3,' as well as to bishops and patriarch4.
The words and the ceremonies used at the delivery
of the staff, in the case of the two latter orders, are
the same as those used among the Syrians. The

1 See Smith's Diet. Christ. Antiq., p. 1566.

2 Denzinger, Rit. Or., torn. ii. pp. 75-77.

Id. ib., p. 176. 4 Id. ib., pp. 203, 208, 223.

CH. v.j Ecclesiastical Vestments. 227

crozier is mentioned along with ring and pall in the
eleventh century1.

For the Nestorian staff I have already cited suffi
cient evidence. The Armenian Church grants the
staff to vartapeds at their ordination, first with words
which make it symbolical of the power of rescuing
sinners from the snares of the Evil One, and turning
them to repentance : again with words which em
phasise the duty of preaching : and thirdly, with
words which recall the pastor's office of comforting
the mournful and afflicted. In the same service it is
called the ' priestly staff,' with a direct allusion to the
good shepherd, and the ' royal sceptre 2.' At a fur
ther stage of the vartaped's ordination it is made
suggestive of preparing the way of the Lord : again
of climbing the hill of Sion : and lastly, of strength
and courage. There is therefore a very ornate
symbolism and ritual connected with the delivery of
the staff to the vartaped at the various stages of his
ordination. In the case of a bishop, the crozier is once
delivered with the words, 'Receive this bishop's staff,
that you may chastise and punish the froward, and
govern and feed those that obey in the law and teach
ing of God always 3.'

The rubrics, of course, say nothing about the form
of these eastern croziers : but fortunately there is some
independent evidence. The Jacobite Syrian Church
seems to employ both the crook and the tau-cross
staff : thus at the church belonging to that community
at Urfa there is 'a double-headed bishop's staff, the
volutes being of serpents, and like our Anglo-Saxon

1 Gerhard, De Eccl. Maronitarum, Jena, 1668 (not paged).
2 Denzinger, Kit. Or., torn. ii. p. 324. 3 Id. ib., p. 337.

Q 2

228 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

style of design1' (sic), and also 'a single-headed
crook of more modern type.' The same authority
mentions a long ' ivory crutch, looking like a patri
archal staff,' in the Nestorian church at Kochanes2.
This, presumably, is a tau-cross without serpents, but
is not by any means determined as the normal form
of crozier by evidence so ambiguous. Among the
Armenians the crooked pastoral staff of Roman
form is used by patriarch and bishops, while the
ancient serpentine crozier is still retained by the
lower order of vartapeds3.

In the West the first mention of the pastoral staff
is in the acts of the Fourth Council of Toledo,
633 A.D. ; but it is there mentioned with the ring in
an incidental manner, which must rather than may
point to already long established usage. And there
is no doubt that in the Celtic and British Churches
the staff goes back to the very beginning of cere
monial worship. The Latinised Saxon or Celtic
name for the staff was cambiitta, or sometimes cambo:
it is found for example in the Gregorian Sacramen-
tary, now in the library of the college at Autun, and
in the Ecgbert Pontifical. Tradition tells of a golden
staff adorned with gems as borne by St. Patrick :
and two of his followers, St. Dagaeus and St. Asic,
as well as St. Columba, are said to have been very
skilful makers of the staff in precious metals4. The
staff covered with plates of gold and enriched with

1 Christians under the Crescent in Asia, p. 84.

2 Id. ib., p. 218.

3 Fortescue, Armenian Church, p. 134. Yet Denzinger says,
' Episcopi baculum pastoralem adhibent similem Graecorum,' vol. i.

P- 133-

4 Warren, Lit. and Kit. of the Celtic Church, pp. 115-116.

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 229

glorious designs in pearls, which St. Columba re
ceived from St. Kentigern, was still found at Ripon in
the fifteenth century. The shape of the Anglo-Saxon
and Irish crozier was peculiar. Originally it seems
to have been quite short, rather like a sceptre than a
crook. The volute at the top was less strongly
marked than in the later and more familiar type : in
fact the form may be roughly compared to that of a
note of interrogation1. Pro fessorWestwood, however,
mentions a very curious and unique example, now in
the museum of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society :
it is in the form of a tau-cross, ' having a boat-shaped
head with the ends recurved and terminating in a
dragon's head.' This surely is a very striking coin
cidence with eastern usage, and adds another link to
the evidence connecting the early Irish and oriental
Churches. Even in later examples of the staff, Irish,
English, and continental, the dragon or serpent in
some form or other is a very common ornament of
the whorl. Thus the top of a staff found in the
ruins of Aghadoc cathedral ends in a dragon's head,
which is seizing the leg of a man, and is itself seized
by another dragon. An extremely fine crozier sold
in the Castellani collection2 was of gilt bronze enam
elled, and had in the whorl a figure of St. Michael
and the Devil, the knop being of open work with
lacertine monsters.

It is easy to trace the development of the staff
from the simple crook, which is illustrated, for
instance, in an illuminated eleventh-century MS. in
the library of Troyes 3, in a fresco of the same period
in the church of S. Clemente at Rome, in the mosaics

1 See Westwood's Miniatures, p. 152, pi. 53.
2 See Academy, March 15, 1884. 3 La Messe, vol. i. pi. 10.

230 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

of St. Mark's at Venice, or in our own country in the
twelfth-century effigy of Bishop Joceline in Salisbury
cathedral. The next stage was to fill the whorl with
a vine-leaf or some simple foliated ornament, such as
appears in the crozier on another stone monument in
Salisbury cathedral, that of Bishop Egidius in the
thirteenth century l. Finally, figures and grotesques
were worked in with elaborate skill ; and it is possible
that the frequent use of the serpent was due to con
siderations of artistic fitness rather than of religious
imagery. The veil or pannicellus on the stem of the
crozier does not seem to be figured in very early
monuments, though the mere fact of its use on the
Coptic episcopal staff is some argument for its an
tiquity. The veil is represented on a brass of Arch
bishop Grenfeld in York minster, dated 1315 A.D., on
that of Abbot Eastney at Westminster, 1498, and
that of Bishop Goodrich at Ely cathedral, I5542.
Oxford has two good examples of the veiled crozier
on painted glass — one in the east window of the Bod
leian Library, the other in the north aisle of Christ
Church cathedral, where is a window containing an
interesting figure of the last Abbot of Osney.

A cross, generally of Greek or nearly Greek form,
is characteristic of an archbishop as opposed to a
bishop in the West. An early instance is furnished
by the fresco at S. Clemente referred to above,
where both the crook-headed and the cross-headed
forms of the crozier may be seen together ; and for
an English illustration one may mention the late
fourteenth-century brass of Robert Waldeby, arch
bishop of York, in Westminster Abbey. Except for

1 See Bloxam's Ecclesiastical Vestments, pp. 22, 28.

2 Waller, Monumental Brasses.

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 231

the doubtful evidence of Vansleb, there is no ana
logy in Coptic usage for the cruciform staff of the
archbishop or patriarch.

MINOR ECCLESIASTICAL ORNAMENTS.

Of the other ornaments worn by the Coptic clergy
it is not necessary to speak at any length. Priests,
bishops, and patriarch alike, in both branches of the
Church of Alexandria, wear the pectoral cross even
in their ordinary attire, but concealed according to
ancient custom in the folds of their raiment. These
crosses are usually of silver ; and though I have not
actually seen any enclosing relics, I have no doubt
that originally in Egypt, as in all other parts of the
Christian world, they were often used as reliquaries.
In fact there are three or four reliquary crosses,
which may have been worn on the breast, though
somewhat large for the purpose, among the treasures
at the orthodox Alexandrian church of St. Nicholas
in Cairo. They are beautiful specimens of Byzantine
goldsmith's work, and richly covered with jewels.
The Greek name for the pectoral cross is ey/coA?™*'.
Nikephorus, patriarch of Constantinople, mentions
an elaborate golden enkolpion in the ninth century ;
and the patriarch Symeon, more than five centuries
later, records it as among the bishop's insignia.
In the West we read of a silver cross worn by
St. Gregory 1, and in England by St. Elphege of
Canterbury ; while in bishop Lacy's Pontifical its
use is enjoined as obligatory. St. Aidan's cross
was among the relics at Durham in the fourteenth

1 Rock, Church of Our Fathers, vol. ii. p. 176.

232 j4ncient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

century l. No doubt in many cases, and more
especially in the very early days of Christianity,
the pectoral cross was worn largely by laymen as
well as by clergy, and served both as a token of

t/M.B

Fig. 31.— Benedictional Cross and small Amulet Crosses.

the faith, and among the more superstitious as a
talisman or amulet. The cut shows five small Coptic
amulet crosses, three at least of which are of extreme

] Warren, Lit. and Rit. of the Celtic Church, p. 115.

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 233

antiquity. Three are of bronze, one of stone, and one
of horn or bone. The designs are of a rude archaic
simplicity, and the bronze specimens are patinated.
The most ancient example perhaps is a small cross
of solid bronze with four nearly equal branches,
rounded, but slightly tapering inwards. The second
bronze cross is rather of Latin form, but made from
a tiny oblong plate with, the angles cut out so as
to leave four broad short branches. Two other
examples have diagonal lines cut on the surface and
deepened at the angles. All the crosses have small
projections pierced to form a ring for suspension.
They may date from the second or third century
of our era.

Processional crosses are found in all the churches ;
the designs are very varied, and often beautiful.

Sandals cannot be reckoned among the Coptic
ecclesiastical ornaments. It is a rule that all who
enter the haikal put off their shoes at the door, and
this applies even to the celebrant. Renaudot T ques
tions the statement of Severus, bishop of Ashmunain,
supported as it is by one independent manuscript,
that sandals were worn by the Syrian clergy. The
Nestorian celebrant however does not approach the
altar barefoot, but retains his shoes2: while the
Armenian priests11 wear special sandals or slippers.

The Armenians also use the ring, which they may
have borrowed from the West, as it does not seem
to be recognised in the other oriental Churches. It
is not surprising that the episcopal gloves, which do
not appear in the West till the twelfth century,
should be unknown among eastern ecclesiastical

1 Lit. Or., vol. ii. p. 54. 2 Christians under the Crescent, p. 220.
•' Fortescue, Armenian Church, p. 134.

234 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

vestments. But the Coptic clergy possess one
ornament not found in western Christendom which

/-,ss^ ^^ii>%v^'^

Fig. 32. — Head of Processional Cross of Silver.

may fitly be mentioned here, — the hand-cross.
Patriarch, bishops, and priests alike employ it to

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 235

give the benediction ; it is also used in the baptismal
ceremony, and in other solemn acts of worship.
The patriarch when seated on his throne in the
church, and not actually celebrating, holds in his
right hand a golden cross, and in his left the crozier :
and it will be noticed that the small cross figured on
the seal of the patriarch has two keys attached as
symbols of his supreme office. The ordinary bene-
dictional cross is of silver : sometimes of base metal
or bronze. It is generally engraved with a dedi
catory inscription, and is nearly always of the form
given in the woodcut above. The Melkite patriarch
also uses a cross of gold, or of silver-gilt enamelled,
to give the benediction.

Lastly, some mention must be made of the epi-
gonation, if only to deny its existence as a Coptic
vestment. It is frequently found depicted in late
Coptic paintings. Any one entering the cathedral
at Cairo, and finding that all the ecclesiastical figures
on the panels of the iconostasis wear the epigonation,
might reasonably number it among Coptic vestments :
and if further he found the same ornament not merely
in new pictures, like those at the cathedral, but in
others a hundred years old, and not merely in Cairo
but in a remote and unfrequented Delta village like
Tns, and even at the monastery of St. Macarius in
the desert, his conclusion would seem certain. Yet
I venture to say that it would be quite erroneous.
In the desert, in the Delta, and in Cairo I have
closely questioned priests and laymen, and never
found a single Copt who knew even the name of the
epigonation in any language, much less its meaning.
When I pointed it out, it was always noticed with a
sort of surprised curiosity : no one could give the

236 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.V.

smallest reason for its presence, but all agreed in
denying that it was an ecclesiastical vestment.
Similarly the rubrics are entirely silent on the sub
ject ; nor is there one particle of literary evidence
to show that the Copts ever acknowledged the
epigonation. The pictures, as I have said, are very
late — painted, in fact, at a period when the Copts
were entirely dependent for their sacred pictures on
the Greeks. A glance at the cathedral iconostasis
will show that it, like the whole building, is the
work of Greek and not of Coptic artists. The
Copts of to-day and the Copts of a hundred years
ago alike have been too inartistic to paint their own
pictures, and too ignorant or too careless to check
the painters whom they hired. The Greek artists
have naturally followed Greek tradition, and have
flooded the Coptic churches with pictures pourlray-
ing peculiarly Greek vestments. Thus it is that all
recent pictures in the sacred buildings of the Copts
are absolutely worthless as evidence for ritual.
Moreover, it is specially easy to understand how
this particular vestment was familiar to the Greeks
in Egypt : for they had not to go to Constantinople
to discover it, but saw it and still see it continually
in their own Melkite Egyptian churches. The
epigonation, of course, in its present stiff lozenge-
like form, dates only from mediaeval times : and
it would therefore be an unheard-of thing, if the
Jacobites adopted it from the Melkites so long after
the Churches had been sundered. We have already
seen that both communities retained such vestments
as were in use at the time of the separation, but did
not borrow from each other subsequently. But it
was natural that the Melkites should fall rather

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 237

under the influence of Constantinople, while the
Copts never bowed their stubborn independence.
Thus the Melkites readily received the epigonation,
and the Copts firmly rejected it ; until by the negli
gence of these latter times it has seemed, and seemed
falsely, to creep in unawares. For, though all the
pictures in Egypt were to bear witness in its favour,
the custom of the Coptic Church and her canons
alike disown it altogether.

Some very beautiful epigonatia belonging to the
Melkite Church may be seen at the treasury of
St. Nicholas in Cairo ; and as they are finer than
anything of the kind yet described in English, I
may be pardoned for giving some details about
them T. The best are from two to three hundred
years old ; and all are lozenge-shaped. One has a
ground of crimson velvet, and is delicately wrought
over in gold embroidery. A border runs round the
edges : within the lozenge a circle is described cut
ting off the four corners or spandrels, which are filled
with the four evangelistic symbols. The circle
itself or rather circular zone, about two inches broad,
is decked with fourteen medallions, of which the
topmost contains the Trinity, the lowermost a
prophet, and the others each an apostle. Within
this zone the Resurrection is depicted forming the
main design. Every medallion and every outline is
marked out with tiny pearls. Another example
bears date 1673 A.D., and, like the last, has a circle
described within the lozenge. The spandrels are

1 Neale gives a diagram of an epigonation, Gen. Introd., p. 311.
It is also figured by Goar, Euchol., pp. 114 and 115. None of
these engravings convey any idea of splendour. The descriptions
are very meagre.

238 Ancient Coptic Churches.

filled with scroll-work : the circle is set round with
fine large pearls : within the circle is a most splendid
design of the Magi bringing gifts to the Holy Child.
The whole is embroidered in gold with extreme fine
ness. Angels above in the air descending head
foremost are represented with really wonderful fore
shortening. All the drawing is true and graceful,
and all the figures wrought as delicately as with a
brush. The drapery is natural and flowing: the
pose admirable : the general effect that of a soft yet
sumptuous picture. Altogether, it is one of the most
beautiful pieces of needlework in any country.

Laymen, as well as monks and ecclesiastics, carry
a rosary, which properly consists of forty-one beads,
or sometimes of eighty-one. But the Copts are not
so careful about the number as their Muslim fellow-
countrymen. For the Muslim rosary consists very
strictly of ninety-nine beads, divided by marks into
three sets of thirty-three : each set as it is told is
accompanied with the words ' Praise be to God ' or
some like prayer; whereas the Coptic formulary is
' Kyrie Eleeson/ repeated as in the service forty-one
times. The priest's rosary should be distinguished by
having a little cross attached : but laymen sometimes
usurp the symbol. In the West the rosary does not
seem to date earlier than mediaeval times : but in
the East and in Egypt it goes back to the furthest
antiquity. Palladius mentions a hermit who carried
pebbles and cast one away for every prayer : and
St. Antony is sometimes depicted as wearing a
rosary at his girdle in Coptic paintings. There
is even some reason to suppose that the rosary
was worn in the East before the Christian era.

CHAPTER VI.

Books, Language, and Literature of
the Copts.

BOOKS.

F the priceless literary treasures which
belonged to the churches of Egypt some
few have been rescued, many have been
destroyed, and some few possibly remain
to reward research. Every monastery, and probably
every church, once had its own library of MSS. ;
and to this day there is no such thing as a printed
book used in sacred service. Curzon's discovery
of most precious MSS. at the monasteries of the
Natrun desert, as recorded in his thrilling narrative,
is too well known to need repetition here1. The
same writer mentions books of less value in the
rock-cut church of the Convent of the Pulley in
Upper Egypt — including one book with a rude
illumination, which Curzon may be pardoned for
deriding, as it is the only one he ever saw2. He
mentions also books found at Madinat Habu 3,
and at the White Monastery near Suhag 4. At the
latter the priest spoke of above one hundred parch
ments destroyed in 1812, when the place was

1 Monasteries of the Levant, pp, 97-110.
2 Id, p. 116. 3 Id, p. 123. 4 Id., p. 132.

240 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vi.

pillaged by the Mamelukes. So, too, among the
lonely mountains in the far eastern desert by the
Red Sea, the monasteries of Antonios and Bolos *
once contained libraries, so rich in ancient treasures
that their loss is little less deplorable than the more
distant destruction of the great library at Alex
andria by 'Amr. For it is only four hundred years
ago since the slaves employed by the degenerate
monks at these two monasteries rose one night
against their masters and slew them ; and after
awhile, tiring of a dull life so far out of the world,
abandoned the place altogether. For eighty years
the buildings remained deserted, or visited only by
wandering Beduins, who plundered all that was worth
plundering in the churches, burnt all that was worth
burning — and the books, by a fatal ignorance, were
placed in the latter category — and destroyed all that
was capable of destruction. But in course of time
other monks slowly drew back to the ruins, repaired
the churches, and rebuilt the walls. Since then the
monasteries have passed three tranquil centuries, in
which the daily sound of chaunt and cymbal has
never ceased, and the inmates' life has never varied,
except when some phenomenal traveller has sought
a night's shelter, or some tribe of wild horsemen have
dashed in vain against the fortress walls. There
are still some books in the tower or keep of Dair
Antonios ; and though apparently they do not date
further back than the reoccupation, yet they deserve
a more careful scrutiny than they have received.
For the monks in returning may very well have

1 Arch. Journ., vol. xxix. p. 129. Vansleb too mentions books
here.

CH. vi.] Language and Literature. 241

brought old books with them. Dair Bolos, which
lies two days' journey away from Dair Antonios, is
also said not to contain a single ancient MS., since
all perished at the time of the slaves' insurrection or
the abandonment ; and the prevalence of this report
has deterred travellers from the tedious and danger
ous pilgrimage. There are, however, reasons for
doubting the accuracy of this rumour.

Very few of the remaining MSS. are on vellum,
or go back beyond the sixteenth century. The paper
employed is cotton paper or carta bombycina, as it
is technically called, a beautiful vellum-like material
of great antiquity. A sixth-century MS. on this
paper exists in the museum of the Collegio Romano
at Rome1, and Curzon speaks of a Coptic MS. in
his possession on the same material dated 1018. The
fact, therefore, of being written on paper instead
of vellum is by no means decisive against the age
of a manuscript, although doubtless the majority of
ancient writings are on vellum.

The MSS. are all written with a reed pen, such
as the Arabs use to-day, and such probably as has
been in use in Egypt ever since writing began. The
characters are bold uncials, there being no cursive
in Coptic. Black and red ink are both employed
freely, for the red is by no means confined to the
rubrics. Most of the missals and lectionaries have
large ornamental capitals and an illuminated cross
at the beginning : and some have a considerable
amount of other ornament. Both Professor West-
wood2 and Messrs. Silvestre and Champollion3 have
given facsimiles of Coptic illumination, and their

1 Curzon, Monasteries of the Levant, p. 123.
2 Palaeographia Sacra Pictoria. 3 Universal Palaeography.

VOL. II. K

242 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CK. vi.

remarks are well worth reading. It may be ad
mitted at once that for the most part these illumi
nations are, though well designed, rather rude in
execution, and will not bear comparison with the
finest miniatures of the West. Still they deserve
more notice than they have received, being often
extremely curious and original. The following
account of a MS. — perhaps of the fourteenth cen
tury — brought by the writer from Egypt, and now
in the Bodleian Library, may serve to give some
idea of Coptic miniature painting in general, though
unfortunately the book is not in good condition, and
the illuminations have in many places been blurred
and spoiled by the English binder, who pasted tissue
paper over them to strengthen the pages. It differs
from earlier MSS. in containing not a single human
figure, a result which one would be inclined to attri
bute rather to unconscious Muslim influence than to
want of skill in this branch of art, were it not for the
continuous practice of painting pictures and icons for
the churches. Birds, however, are depicted in the
most extraordinary varieties of grotesque attitudes.
Sometimes it is a creature with large red head and
stiff, wingless, mummy-like body, reaching down the
whole side of the page. It has tiny legs "or none at
all ; the body is divided by vertical bands and covered
with black and yellow scrollwork ; in its mouth it
carries something which may be a fruit or a jewel.
Sometimes, again, it has a long thin serpentine form
winding about the margin of the page, and making
in several convolutions pouches which contain un
fledged nestlings ; while other strange little birds
are pecking at various parts of their remarkable
mother. The little ones in the pouches are often

CH. vi.] Language and Literature. 243

so roughly indicated as to look like nothing but
the relics of a spider's den — a mere heap of random
legs and wings. Some, of these birds are plainly
plucking at their own breast, and there can be little
doubt that they are meant for pelicans, and repre
sent the familiar Christian emblem ; but it is by a very
singular confusion that the serpent and the bird—
the antitheses of the symbol — are here blent together.
Smaller birds with retorted drooping heads, which
are common, may be meant for doves, but look more
like ducks ; other birds are seen tumbling about,
standing on their heads, and very rarely flying. In
the fine genealogy of our Lord in this volume there
is a sort of broad pillar down the left side of the
page, and every name is written between a bird's
head on the one side and a golden rose on the other.
Gilt is sparingly used in these illuminations, the chief
colours being red, pale yellow, olive green, and black ;
azure blue and cobalt are rarer.

No other animals are drawn in this volume, and
there is scarcely a sign of flower-painting beyond
a doubtful sort of tulip design in black, and one or
two clusters of blossoms, or grapes, or some other
fruit at which birds are pecking.

While, however, the birds unenclosed in borders
are scattered at random up and down the pages, far
the greater part of Coptic ornamentation is purely
conventional and systematic. These conventional
designs may be divided into two classes — the geo
metrical, which consist of narrow ribbons interlacing
in endless variety, and the foliated, which comprise
many forms of the acanthus. Interlacing work is
employed chiefly for elaborate borders at the begin
ning of a prayer or lection, and for large crosses at

R 2

244 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vi.

the end. The borders are usually made up of concen
tric squares or oblongs in order round the page1, or
of ribbons in long parallels with plaited knots at
intervals ', or of small crosses in twisted bands 3.
The large crosses which generally fill a page are
not more often of the Greek than of the Latin
form 4. There is one example of a cross in a
quatrefoil 5.

The best specimen of the acanthus pattern is at the
beginning of our Lord's genealogy0. At the right
side medallions filled with acanthus are enclosed by
bands of interlaced ribbons. The ribbon-work on
the left side is in gold ; the medallions on the right
have a blue ground with gold designs. The oblong
space across the top is surrounded with a blue and
gold band of acanthus work ; the ground within
being part red and part blue, worked over with like
foliage in gold. This illumination is really of high
merit, approaching to the fineness and splendour of
the best work in the early mediaeval copies of the
koran in the public library at Cairo. The acanthus
has always been a favourite subject with eastern
artists of all kinds. It is found in luxuriant pro
fusion in the stucco-work, carved woodwork, and
marble of the ancient mosques ; in the splendid early
ivories of the Coptic churches ; and in the trays,
lamps, and inkstands which the Cairo workers in
brass may be seen every day chasing in the Khan
al Khalili. Nor is it at all uncommon in the minia
ture painting of the West. Thus it occurs in an
early form in the Latin Gospels at Trinity College,

1 Bodleian MS., p. 29. 2 Id., p. 42. 3 Id., p. 107.

4 E.g. id., p. 145. 5 Id., p. 41. ° Id., p. 164.

CH. vi.] Language and Literature. 245

Cambridge, elated the end of the tenth century1 ;
and it is frequent in a more conventionalised form
in the eleventh century, for example in the Arundel
Psalter2.

It would be very interesting, if it were possible,
to trace in the ornamentation of their books one
more link of connexion between the Churches of
Egypt and Ireland. One is met at once, however,
by a serious stumbling-block in the fact that the
acanthus, which, as I have shown, is very frequent
in Egyptian design, is never found in Irish orna
mentation3. Again, for the slender spiral lines in
complex coils, for the squares filled with cross-
lines in Chinese-like patterns, and for the red dotted
outlines, which are three of the main characteristics
of Irish work, there is no counterpart in Coptic
illumination. Nor can the uncouth bird designs
described above be considered a fair analogue for
the great variety in Irish MSS. of lacertine animals
and birds with bodies 'hideously attenuated4' and
necks, legs, tails, and tongues drawn out into long
interlacing ribbons. There remains, then, by this
method of exhaustion, only one prominent character
istic common to the two schools, namely a love of
borders designed in very ingenious and intricate
plaitwork ; though even here it should be noticed
that the Irish are more fond of rounded angles than
the Copts. The western MS., with ornamentation

1 Westwood, Facsimiles of Anglo-Saxon and Irish Ornaments,
pi. 42-

2 Id, pi. 49-

3 Westwood, Palaeographia Sacra Pictoria, chapter on Book
of Kells, p. 2.

4 Id.ib.

246 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vi.

nearest the Coptic style, is perhaps the Psalter of
St. John at Cambridge, belonging to the ninth cen
tury1; but on the whole, the resemblance between
Egyptian and western art is too slight to bear the
weight of any serious theory.

The matter, however, is somewhat changed, if we
pass from the inside to the outside of these service-
books. The likeness between the metal cases in
which the Coptic gospels are enclosed and the Irish
cumhdachs has been already brought out ; more
over the Irish practice of enclosing missals and other
books for carrying about in leathern cases, called
polaires2, is exactly paralleled by the Abyssinian, if
not the Coptic, custom, as described and illustrated by
Curzon in the narrative of his visit to the monasteries
of the Natrun lakes3. As a rule, however, at the pre
sent time Coptic MSS. are merely bound in brown
or red calfskin, with arabesque devices stamped upon
the covers and on the flap which protects the front
edges. Sometimes, in the absence of a flap, the
book is kept closed by leather strings fastened in
the place of clasps and serving the same purpose.
These service-books belong only to the churches ;
or, if the people have them for private devotion in
their own houses, they never bring prayer-books or
missals to public worship, where they follow the
words as they fall from the priest's lips with rever
ence and intelligence, and keep their eyes fixed upon
the sanctuary.

1 Westwood, Facsimiles, pi. 30.

2 Warren, Lit. and Kit. of Celtic Church, p. 22.

3 Monasteries of the Levant, pp. 105-6.

CH, vi.] Language and Literature. 247

THE COPTIC LANGUAGE.

The Copts can boast of no great poets, historians,
philosophers, or men of science. Their only litera
ture is religious : and the fact that they have neither
witchery of speech nor treasures of knowledge to
offer has caused their language to be treated with a
strangely undeserved indifference. For there is no
language with a higher antiquity, a more abnormal
structure, or a more curious history. The records
of five thousand years ago chiselled on the monu
ments of Egypt still remain sculptured, though
standing in everlasting silence ; the very words
uttered by the great men of Hellas are still heard
sounding, though no longer written in the ancient
manner of writing : yet these two, the lost utterance
of the old Egyptian speech and the lost character of
the old Greek writing, are united and preserved in
the Coptic of to-day. The romance of language
could go no further than to join the speech of
Pharaoh and the writing of Homer in the service-
book of an Egyptian Christian. Now, however,
the study of Coptic is likely to be rescued from the
neglect which it has long suffered by the kindred
study of hieroglyphics, as philologers are shamed
and forced out of their indolence by the zeal of
historians and antiquarians.

A subject of this nature requires, of course, a
large treatise to itself — a treatise for which the
materials are as yet hardly ripe, and which would
besides be somewhat out of place in these volumes.
The present notice therefore will be as brief as the

248 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vi.

state of the materials at hand and the scope of the
writer's purpose demand.

The Coptic language to-day is no doubt virtually \
the same tongue that was spoken by the builders of
the pyramids : and it still retains many words
scarcely changed from that epoch. The vocabulary
however is neither purely Aryan nor purely Semitic,
but a mixture of both. In the same way the gram
matical structure of Coptic is half Semitic, half akin
to the African languages. It was probably in very
early Christian times that Coptic became fixed in
the form that survives, although it was not until the
sixth century that Christianity became definitely the
established religion. Up to that date the worship
of Osiris had lingered on, particularly in remote
country places, where the gospel was unheard or
awoke but faint echoes. Then however the bishops
began to wield secular power, and amongst other
signs of government they took the important office
of distributing corn to the people out of the hands
of the city prefects l. It was at this period, accord
ing to Messrs. Silvestre and Champollion, that Coptic
writing began : but it is difficult to understand for
what reasons they assign the beginning of letters to
so late a period. In the third and fourth centuries
the monasteries of the desert were thronged with
monks, many of whom could talk no language but
their native Coptic. Thus St. Antony, who knew
no Greek, was first set thinking on monastic life by
hearing the gospel -read in Coptic; and Palladius
speaks of regular service and celebrations2, which he

1 Universal Palaeography, by Silvestre and Champollion, trans
lated by Sir F. Madden, p. 122.

2 Rosweyde, Vitae Patrum, lib. viii. p. 712.

CH. vi.] Language and Literature. 249

witnessed, and which must imply set forms written in
the vernacular. We know moreover that the Psalms
were translated into Coptic about the year 300 A. D.
by Pachomius : and although this is perhaps the
earliest date assignable with certainty, it is extremely
difficult to conceive that the need for setting down
liturgical forms in writing did not assert itself irre
sistibly some time before that. It is of course
possible that the most ancient forms of prayer in
the Coptic vulgar tongue may have been written
not in Greek but in demotic characters : but, interest
ing as the fact would be, there is not sufficient
evidence to establish it, though there is reason to
think that in some way or other demotic writing
was preserved in use among the Copts for full a
thousand years into the Christian era. There seems
no decided point of contact between Coptic and
hieroglyphic writing. Long before the Persian con
quest the knowledge of hieroglyphics was limited to
the priests : even as early as the fourteenth century
B.C., the scribes who visited Bani Hassan could not
understand the inscriptions, and those of the twenty-
first dynasty blundered hopelessly in their copies of
the Book of the Dead. So that it is matter of
surprise rather than otherwise to find that hierogly
phics were not entirely disused in the time of Clement
of Alexandria, and were even partially understood a
century later. But their pagan character doubtless
excluded them from recognition by the Christians.
There is a contemporary story that at the time of
Chosroes' invasion of Egypt, about 600 A. D., a saint
who took refuge in a tomb was able to read the
ancient inscriptions on the walls : but the probability
is that the writing was demotic not hieroglyphic.

250 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vi.

The White Monastery in Upper Egypt, which was
built by the empress Helena with massive ex
terior in the style of ancient Egyptian architecture,
contains many hieroglyphic stones, with inscriptions
mostly upside-down, and therefore probably unintel
ligible to the builders. Vansleb mentions an inscrip
tion on the altar-stone of a little chapel dedicated to
St. Michael in the convent of St. Matthew near
Asnah — ' characters which were not hieroglyphics,
and in a language that we know nothing about V
There can, I think, be little doubt that the inscription
was demotic — though there is nothing to fix the date
— and, if so, the fact is extremely interesting as tend
ing to show the existence of a demotic Christian
ritual.

Concerning the collision and interaction of Coptic
with Greek and with Arabic more evidence is obtain
able — evidence which goes to prove that Greek
did not exercise nearly so powerful an influence
as Arabic over the indigenous Egyptian. Origen
for instance remarks that if a Greek wanted to
teach the Egyptians, he would have to learn their
language, or his labour would be vain 2. The
emperor Severus collected vast numbers of books
on magic and shut them up in Alexander's tomb :
and Diocletian, enraged at a revolt and fearing lest
the people should grow rich again, gathered together

1 The convent is dedicated to Matthew the Poor, not to the
evangelist as Vansleb implies. The former is a Coptic saint,
commemorated on the 3rd December.

2 The material of this and the following paragraphs is borrowed
mainly from the learned work of jfitienne Quatremere, Recherches
Critiques et Historiques sur la Langue et la Litte'rature de 1'Egypte.
Paris, 1808.

CH. vi.] Language and Literature. 251

with great care all books on alchemy written by the
old Egyptians, and burned them in public. These
writings were presumably in the demotic character.
In early Christian times Greek was spoken by a few
of the well educated natives. Thus, while St. Paul
the hermit spoke Greek1, St. Antony knew only
Egyptian, and letters of his in that language, written
to the monasteries, were extant in the time of Abu
'1 Birkat. We read too of St. Athanasius' letters
being translated into the vernacular. In the Syriac
life of St. Ephrem it is related that when the holy
man visited Egypt to see the famous Anba Bishoi,
the two worthies were unable to converse, each
knowing only his mother tongue : but each there
upon received a miraculous gift of speech. The
author of an Arabic note upon a Coptic MS. states
that before the Arab conquest the lessons were
read in Greek, but explained in Coptic. Abu '1
Muhassan relates that one 'Abdullah, son of 'Abd
al Malik, governor of Egypt, ordered the registers
of the divans or public offices to be kept in Arabic
instead of Coptic in the year A.H. 96: but to this
day the system of book-keeping in Egypt is a tradi
tional mystery in the hands of the Copts. Severus,
bishop of Ashmunain, who compiled a history of the
patriarchs of Alexandria from Coptic and Greek
MSS. in the monastery of St. Macarius, says in his
preface that he made the translation into Arabic,
because Arabic was everywhere spoken, and most
of the people were ignorant of Greek and Coptic
alike. This seems to have been in the ninth
century. Yet in the ninth century Coptic was by
no means unknown : for Joseph, the LII patriarch,

1 Rosweyde, Vitae Patrum, p. 18.

252 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vi.

at his trial about 850 A. D,, addressed the assembly in
Coptic, and was understood even by Muslims who
were present.

By the eleventh century doubtless Coptic had
become less generally intelligible J, though it lin
gered on for centuries afterwards. The constitu
tions of the patriarch Gabriel n., c. 1140 A. D.,
ordered bishops to explain the creed and the
Lord's prayer in the vulgar tongue, i.e. in Arabic.
The Vatican MSS. are covered with marginal notes
in Coptic : and Al Makrizi, writing in the early
fifteenth century, constantly implies that Coptic is
a living language. In speaking, for example, of the
monasteries near Siut, he avers that the monks
there use the Sahidic dialect, and that the women
and children of Upper Egypt talk scarcely anything
but Sahidic. So of Darankah he remarks that ' the
inhabitants are Christians : all, great and little, speak
Coptic and interpret it in Arabic.' Another Arab
author, Abu Salah, in his history of the monasteries
of Egypt tells of a custom at Asnah still existing,
by which Christians assist at Muslim weddings, and
head the procession of the bridegroom through the
streets, reciting Sahidic texts and maxims. Vansleb,
visiting Egypt in 1672, conversed, as he alleges, with
the last man who spoke Coptic as his mother tongue.

Such briefly are the facts, which bear witness to a
slow process of extinction. Yet in face of such
evidence, it is curious to find what wild mistakes
about the Coptic language are made by grave
authorities upon Church matters, Thus Denzinger
declares that ' uno aut altero seculo post Arabum
tyrannidem vernaculus linguae Aegyptiacae usus

1 Renaudot, Hist. Pat. Alex., p. 467.

CH. vi.] Language and Literature. 253

prorsus interiit l ' — a swiftness of decay, or rather
destruction, unparalleled in the history of language.
Neale errs no less in the opposite direction in gravely
recording a diocese in the south of Egypt 'where the
Copts are better educated than in any other portion
of the patriarchate, and the Coptic language is
generally spoken, whereas not above two persons
understand it in Cairo V Coptic is, of course, still
the language of ritual. The mass and most of the
prayers are recited in Coptic : the gospel is first
read in Coptic and then rendered in the vernacular
Arabic : some parts of the service are in Greek :
while the rubrics where they are found, as well as
some of the prayers and the psalms, are in Arabic.
Generally, however, one may say that the text of the
service-books now used is Coptic : and the earlier
among them have no other language. But as the
ritual language decayed from common use, we find
rubrics, marginal notes and headings, and finally
parallel translations in Arabic. It is worth remark
ing that there seems to be no example of a Coptic
and Cufic MS. : which would seem to show that the
need of a vernacular translation was not felt until
after the Cufic had given way to the present cursive
form of Arabic writing. Indeed the only instance
of Cufic employed in any sacred building of the
Copts, as far as I am aware, is the inscription on
the ancient cedar screen at Al Mu'allakah. Yet
curiously enough some traces of Cufic survive in
encyclical or other ceremonial letters of the Church
even at the present day. Thus in a letter from the
patriarch of Alexandria to the archbishop of Canter-

1 Rit. Or., torn. i. p. i.

2 Eastern Church: Gen. Introd., vol. i. p. 118.

254 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vi.

bury, written forty years ago, while the title and
address are in ordinary Arabic of a very ornamental
style, the formal greeting is in Cufic, and there are
some words of Cufic at the end.

Coptic MSS., then, fall naturally into three classes
each with its own historical significance. First,
anterior to the Arab conquest, come bilingual MSS.
in which the literary Greek and the vernacular
Coptic stand side by side together. These are
generally written on papyrus, and go back to the
sixth century or possibly earlier. Sometimes more
over the two languages are found together inscribed
on tiles or stone : and apparently there was a time
when such inscriptions were common.

Next, the Greek text was omitted, and the Coptic
stood alone. This change began with the settle
ment of the Arabs in Egypt, when the Jacobite
faction among the natives sided with their conquerors
against the Melkites, and strove with equal vigour
for the destruction of Melkite churches and the
suppression of the Melkite language. Still it is not
till the tenth century that Graeco-Coptic MSS.
disappear entirely. At that period Greek cursive
writing became general, but the Copts never adopted
any form of cursive : probably because Coptic was
already assuming a hieratic character, and was there
fore not to be degraded to the uses of common life ;
while the Arabic was passing from the beautiful but
stately Cufic to its present fluent and graceful form,
and thus became adapted to the needs of business
or friendly intercourse.

The third class of MSS. is that in which
Arabic has been formally acknowledged as the
vulgar tongue, and is received into the text side

CH. vi.] Language and Literature. 255

by side with the dead or dying Coptic. These MSS.
date from the thirteenth century, or even earlier, and
continue up to the present time, although the lan
guage of the mass has been unspoken for two
hundred years ; and even among the priests who have
to read it, there are but few who read with under
standing.

To this day, however, there remain sundry phrases
and fragments of Greek, like fossils embedded in the
Coptic ritual language. Thus the KTpie eXencon
is a familiar \vord in the mouth of the present wor
shippers at various parts of the service : most of the
proclamations uttered by the deacon to the people
are still in Greek, ^cn^ecoe <LXXKXo-*c ert
c^iXmui^/ri <LYio5, eic ^rt^/roX
other sentences in the canon, as o KTpioc
TU,rrra)it TJUUOH, K^.I AJLGT^ Tcnr

COT, 2^0££. HA/TTpI K<LI TICJO K-&.I A.VI

and particular words, as ru.p<L2acoc, npo$RrrKC,
KOCJULOC, ^rt^cT^-cic, o ^weXoc,
The eucharistic bread is still
stamped with the trisagion in Greek — ^.vioc
icXTP°c <^YJOC A.e^.n^.T-oc ^.vioc o oeoc,
although the Coptic word for God is of ancient
Egyptian origin.

A word concerning the dialects of the Egyptian
language will not be out of place here1, (i) The
Memphitic or Coptic proper was the language of
Lower Egypt, and derives its name from Memphis,
the ancient capital, which stood a little south of the
modern Cairo. Nearly the whole Bible exists in this
dialect, and the Pentateuch, Book of Job, the Psalms,

1 See Dr. Tattam's Compendious Grammar of the Egyptian
Language, 2nd edit., 1863.

256 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vi.

the Prophets, and the New Testament have all been
published. (2) The Sahidic is so called from the
Arabic ^AjuJP the name given to Upper Egypt, or
the district of which Thebes was capital, whence the
dialect is also termed Thebaic. It is curious to remark
that the Sahidic, though more remote from the
centre of Greek life, yet adopted more Greek words
than the nearer Coptic ; and both in Coptic and
Sahidic writing Greek words are very often found
where the native language had a perfectly good equi
valent. In Sahidic it is much more usual than in
Coptic to express the vowels by lines above the con
sonants. In the Sahidic dialect almost an entire
version of the scriptures, including a complete New
Testament, exists, though it is only in MS. ; and,
owing to the dormant state of Coptic scholarship in
England, nothing has been done towards collation
since the close of the last century. (3) The Bash-
muric dialect, so called from Bashmur a province
in the Delta, has distinct analogies with Coptic
and with Sahidic, but is of a ruder character,
as was natural from the wild nomadic habits of
the people by whom it was spoken. Only a few
fragments exist in this dialect, and they have been
published.

The study of the language in modern times dates
from Kircher's ( Prodromus Coptus,' which was pub
lished in 1636. Eighty years later Blumberg issued
a Coptic grammar; and in 1778 a Coptic bishop of
Arsinoe, named Tuki, published an Arabic and Latin
treatise called * Rudimenta Linguae Copticae.' But

1 Strictly it should rather be Saidic, as there is no h in the
Arabic ; but the conventional form is the most convenient.

CH. vi.] Language and Literature. 257

the first scientific grammar of the three dialects was
that written by Tattam, and published in I83O1.

1 It would ill become a writer on this subject, and most of all an
Oxonian, to pass over in silence the great and memorable services
rendered by Oxford to the study of Coptic. The zeal of the learned
was first awakened in the matter by the rich collection of oriental
MSS. presented by the traveller Huntington to the Bodleian Library
in the seventeenth century. Dr. Marshall, rector of Lincoln College,
who is described as a master of eastern languages, and who pub
lished a translation of Abu Dakn at Oxford in 1675, worked at
Coptic with such success that he was on the point of bringing
out an edition of the New Testament in that language, with
Latin translation and notes. But when only a single sheet was
through the press, the rector's task was ended by an untimely
death. Thereupon Dr. Fell, bishop of Oxford, who had already
paid for a fount of Coptic type for the work, summoned from
Cambridge a learned scholar named Thomas Edward ; who, after
sundry discouragements, at last brought out, not the New Testa
ment, but a Coptic lexicon. About the same time Witsen, the
burgomaster of Amsterdam, sent a fount of Coptic type as a gift
to the University Press at Oxford: and in the year 1716, D. Wil-
kins, a German by birth despite his Anglicised name, published a
Coptic and Latin New Testament at the expense of the University.

Jablonski worked for some time at Oxford copying MSS. : and
after his death the well-known Dr. RadciirTe purchased many of
his treasures from his son.

Dr. Cumberland, bishop of Peterborough, began the study of
Coptic with rare enthusiasm at the age of eighty : and George
Whiston copied and translated into Latin the Pentateuch; — two
Englishmen, though not Oxonians, whose names may be recorded.

In 1765 M. Woide, having obtained from Scholtz at Berlin
extracts from a lexicon, grammar, and essays on the Coptic lan
guage, showed them to Dr. Durell, then vice-chancellor of Oxford :
and Drs. Durell and Wheeler together finally secured the publica
tion of all three works at the charges of the University. Woide
was next entrusted with the publication of the Sahidic version, and
far advanced the work, but never lived to see it finished. It was,
however, promptly taken up by Professor Ford, the professor of
Arabic at Oxford, who revised and corrected the whole with the

VOL. II. S

258 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vi.

Coptic literature has been already described as
essentially religious. There is, however, I believe,
no example of a complete Coptic Bible, nor are all
the books of the Old Testament found quite entire,
even in a detached condition. But besides the ver
sions of scripture before mentioned, there exist also
several apocryphal gospels and gnostic works of
various descriptions ; while lives and acts of the saints,
sermons, homilies, and martyrologies abound1. But
while all the churches in or near Cairo have their
own collections of books, the only library properly so
called, and housed in a separate apartment, is that
belonging to the patriarch. It has, I believe, recently
been examined and catalogued by a French savant,
who does not seem however to have discovered any
pearl of great price2. The books in the churches
are all service-books of one sort or another. A good
idea of their nature may be formed from the follow
ing list of MSS. found in a church at Asnah, near
Luxor : —

i. Canons of the Coptic Church, — I2th century.

help of the original documents ; and the text was issued from the
Oxford Press in 1799.

Since that date very little has been done for the study of Coptic
in England, and not much in Oxford : but the University Press
published in 1835 Tattam's Coptic Lexicon, in 1836 his Minor
Prophets, and his Major Prophets in 1852. Yet few know what
Oxford scholars have done for the language in the past : so lost
are the achievements of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
in the oblivion of the nineteenth.

1 For a list of such works, see Catalogus Codd. Copt. MSS. in
Museo Borgiano : 4to. Romae, 1810.

! The patriarch of the orthodox Church of Alexandria has also a
library of Greek MSS. at the church of St. Nicholas, in Cairo : it
contains one ninth-century MS., several of the thirteenth, but
nothing remarkable.

CH. vi.] Language and Literature. 259

2. Book of the gospels, — i3th century.

3. Lectionary, — I4th century.

The above are on vellum : the rest on paper.

4. Consecration of monks, — 1358.

5. Consecration of the various orders in the church ;
to wit, psalmodos, anagnostes, subdeacon, deacon,
archdeacon, priest, hegumenos, chorepiscopos, and
lastly, bishop, metropolitan, and patriarch — which
three have the same service1, — i6th century.

6. Psalter for the canonical hours, — i6th century.

7. Euchologion or benedictional, — i6th century.

8. Minor prophets, — i6th century.

9. Funeral service, — i6th century.

10. Mystagogia or confessio, — i6th century.

11. Consecration of chrism and oil of the lamp,—
i6th century.

12. Order of baptism and consecration of altar-
vessels, — 1 7th century.

13. Consecration of altars and fonts, — i8th century.

14. Many copies of gospels, epistles, the three
liturgies, and the various consecration services2.

Every church has specially attached to its service
a book called in Coptic * s^naxar,' i.e. vvvagdpiov, or
lives of the saints, from which a portion is often read
at matins, in accordance with a very ancient custom
sanctioned, for instance, at the third Council of
Carthage in 397 A.D. This book corresponds
closely to the passional of our English churches,
from which the lessons at matins were sometimes

1 This is not the case in Renaudot's MS. The Syrian Jacobites
and the Maronites have the same service for bishop and metro
politan, but that for patriarch is different: so generally in the
Church of Alexandria.

2 See Academy, Dec. 28, 1882, article by J. H. Middleton.

S 2

260 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.VI.

taken, or to the martyrology, which was read at the
end of prime-song1. The s^naxar is confined within
the sacred walls, and there is no copy of it in any
private person's possession. It has, of course, been
rendered into Arabic for use at service : and the
legends printed at the end of this work, which are
from the Arabic version, will serve to give an idea of
the miraculous traditions to which the faithful still
listen with unquestioning reverence.

The liturgy or book of the mass is called in Arabic
' khulagi/ which is a corrupted form of * euchologion/
The lectionary for the year, or ' kotmarus,' is a term
of less certain origin. One may mention also the
' agbiah ' or psalms for the canonical hours and for
festivals, there being a distinct arrangement for
regulars and seculars, and also a separate psalmody
for the feast of our Lord and of the Virgin. Two
other books, namely, ' kitab al paskah,' or the office
of Holy Week, and the ' disnari,' or hymns of saints
and martyrs, are said to have been compiled by
Gabriel, LXX patriarch, about the year H352. The
s^naxar is ascribed to one Anba Butros, bishop of
Malig.

In addition to the foregoing books every church
possesses a careful inventory of all its sacred ves
sels and other belongings, which are verified once a
year by the wakll or overseer. In this too all gifts to
the church are entered, sometimes, though not always,
with the donor's name added. It is called the Offering
Book, and resembles in some ways the book of bene
factors which belonged to some of our great English

1 Rock, vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 212.

2 See Vansleb, Histoire de 1'figlise d'Alexandrie, p. 62.

CH. vi.] Language and Literature. 261

churches in olden times, though it is not kept in the
same place of honour, nor bound in the same costly
materials. For at Durham cathedral, for instance,
we read that the book of benefactors ' did lye on the
High Altar, an excellent fine Booke, very richly
covered with gold and silver, conteininge the names
of all the benefactors towards St. Cuthbert's Church
from the foundation thereof : ' and again, ' there is
another famous Booke yett extant conteininge the
reliques, jewels, ornaments, and vestments, that were
given to the Church by all these founders1.'

It is greatly to be hoped that these Coptic inven
tories will some day be examined by an Arabic
scholar with sufficient tact, patience, and skill to get
at them and to decipher them. None knows better
than the writer what it will cost in time, temper, and
money, before they are rendered accessible. But if,
as is certain, they correspond in some ways to our
own church inventories ; and if, as seems highly
probable, some few at least among them can boast a
considerable antiquity, they ought to yield results of
the greatest interest to ecclesiology, and to repay in
the richest manner the largest expenditure of time
and trouble.

1 Durham Rites, ed. Surtees Society, pp. 14, 15.

CHAPTER VII.
The Seven Sacraments.

Baptism and Confirmation. — Eucharist. — Penance.

ONTINUOUSLY since the dawn of
Christianity the Copts seem to have
acknowledged seven canonical sacra
ments, namely baptism, confirmation,
eucharist, penance, orders, matrimony, and unction
of the sick. Of the particular nature of these
mysteries, as interpreted by the Church of Alexan
dria, much has already been written, but rather in
times past than in our generation, and rather by
continental x than by English authorities. Some
thing therefore yet remains which may fitly find a
place in this work ; inasmuch as no mere description
of sacred buildings can be complete without some
account of the ceremonial for which they were
designed. For architecture is, of course, ancillary
to ritual. Yet the present writer cannot pretend
to do more than touch lightly on liturgical mat
ters, recording the testimony of others, and adding
facts which have fallen under his own observation.

Baptism2 of infants is allowed no less by present
custom than by the ancient canons : which, founded

1 The Assemani, Vansleb, Renaudot, Denzinger, &c.

2 Baptism is called «o.^dl : confirmation,

The Seven Sacraments. 263

on the Mosaic law of purification, make the age
of forty days necessary for male children, and
eighty days for females, before they can receive
the rite. For these are the periods in which the
' days of purification are accomplished ' : and it is
necessary for the mother to be present in the church l.
Where however there is peril of death, or other
extreme necessity, the child may be baptised at once
without regard to age. The J ewish practice of circum
cision on the eighth day is general, but neither compul
sory nor counted a religious ceremony : yet circum
cision after baptism is very strongly prohibited. The
same canon of age for infant baptism prevailed in the
Ethiopian, Syrian, and Nestorian Churches : but
the Armenians and modern Nestorians fix the cere
mony for the eighth day after birth, and we read of
the same custom holding even in Cairo. But although
Coptic history records many violations of primitive
practice at various epochs, the canons are never
really changed or abrogated. Thus about 750 A.D.
the patriarch Khail i. reenforced the regulation
enjoining the baptism of infants. Christodulus three
centuries later forbade the two sexes to be baptised
in the same water ; and ordered that, according to
ancient custom, infants should receive the com
munion fasting at their baptism. So Macarius u. and
Gabriel IL, both in the twelfth century, denounced
circumcision after baptism. Indeed it is only from

1 Pococke is wrong in giving the age as twenty-four days for a
girl: see Description of the East, vol. i. p. 246. Barhebraeus
(Chronicon Ecclesiasticon, ed. Abbeloos et Lamy, Louvain, 1872)
says thirty days for a boy, and so apparently a Vatican MS., quoted
by Asseman, though agreeing about the age of eighty days for a
girl : but there is no real doubt on the subject.

264 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vn.

these stringent enactments, as a rule, that we dis
cover from time to time the prevailing laxity of
practice.

Certain seasons of the year are appointed and
others forbidden for the exercise of the rite, but
exception is always made in cases of danger. The
whole of Lent, Holy Week, and Eastertide are con
sidered unsuitable times for baptism. Macarius,
bishop of Memphis in the eighth century, relates
that at Alexandria during the early ages of the
church, baptism was conferred only once a year on
Good Friday1 : but the statement is mixed with legend
and seems apocryphal. The canons of Christodulus
prohibit baptism on Easter eve and during the season
of Pentecost. From the remotest antiquity to the
present day the season most commended for baptism
is the feast of Epiphany : but Abu Dakn2, — an un
trustworthy authority, but possibly right in this
instance, — gives Easter day and Pentecost as the
times at which baptism was conferred in the seven
teenth century.

We have already seen that scarcely a single
church in the whole of Egypt possesses a baptistery
external to the sacred building : and that while in
many of the fabrics the Epiphany tank is at the
western end near the principal doorway, yet now in
most cases the baptistery proper and the font are
found in various positions, which would necessitate
the entrance of the infant into the church before the
accomplishment of the ceremony. There is however
one monument remaining, which illustrates with
singular clearness the ancient custom of administering

1 Vansleb, Histoire de 1'figlise d' Alexandria, p. 83. 2 P. 16.

CH. vii.] The Seven Sacraments. 265

the rite without the church, yet in a building speci
ally consecrated for the purpose. A glance at the
plan of the fourth-century church of the White
Monastery1 will show the earliest known arrange
ment in strict accordance with the most primitive
ritual. There the candidate was received first into
a small vestibule, then led into the baptistery ; and
when the rite was ended, he passed into the opposite
chapel, still without the church, and received the
eucharist ; which completed his initiation, and gave
him the right henceforth to enter the place of worship.
The next step was to remove the baptistery and the
chapel just within the western wall of the church, so
that they occupied the narthex, but were still prob
ably walled off from nave and aisles, or at least from
the latter. Such an arrangement seems to have
existed originally at Abu Sargah, as the western apse
with its frescoes still remaining testifies. Finally, as
the rigidity of early custom slackened, the partition
between the baptistery and the church was removed :
the need for a neophyte chapel disappeared : and the
position of the font became a matter of accident and
indifference2. But in all cases the Copts disallow
the baptism of infants in private houses. It is a
matter of necessity that all should come to the con
secrated building. The font is often called the
'Jordan'; but the ancient Coptic name "j~KoXTJUL-
fi.KOpA. is, of course, of Greek origin.

Bernard of Luxemburg, Jacques de Vitry, and

1 See vol. i. p. 352.

2 Denzinger is wrong in saying that the Coptic baptistery ought
to be ' versus orientem ex parte sinistra ecclesiae.' Rit. Or., torn. i.
p. 25.

266 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vn.

others have spread a ridiculous story that the Copts
baptise their children with fire1 by branding a cross
on the forehead after baptism. The story is a pure
fiction, but may have arisen from the Ethiopian
custom of gashing and tattooing the face. All over
the world baptism is performed by natural water :
but the Copts, in common with the catholic custom,
require that the water be specially consecrated. And
this consecration takes place each time that the cere
mony has to be performed with fresh water : whereas
in the Latin Church the benediction of water is a
more solemn service, held but once or twice in the
year, and the water so consecrated is reserved to be
used as occasion arises. Abu Dakn agrees with all
the authorities in stating that after baptism the
water must be let off by a drain : and though Tuki
asserts that at one time the priests in Cairo reserved
a small quantity for use in case of emergency2, the
canons rather show that no ceremonies were required
where the life of a child would be in danger from
delay. Of the same tenour is a well-known legend,
which tells of a certain woman who, in crossing the
sea to Alexandria with two young children, was
caught in a furious storm : so being in great peril,
and fearing lest her children should perish unbaptised,
she drew blood 3 from her breast and sprinkled them,
repeating the formula. Subsequently, when she took

1 Rit. Or., vol. i. p. 14. In treating of the Coptic rites and cere
monies my obligations to Denzinger are so great that I once for all
acknowledge them to save the trouble of perpetual reference.

2 Neale affirms this absolutely of present practice (Gen. Introd.,
vol. ii. p. 977) : of course erroneously.

3 Denzinger says sea-water was used : but the legend as given
at the end of this volume speaks of blood.

CH. vii.] The Seven Sacraments. 267

her children to the bishop in Alexandria to be regu
larly baptised, the water in the font became frozen
or petrified, to prevent the repetition of a ceremony
thus declared lawful. Lastly, any remaining doubt
concerning the reservation of the hallowed water is
removed by the words at the end of the service,
which pray that the water may be changed again to
its former nature, and return to earth deconsecrated ;
and the rubric orders the priest to pour in a little
fresh water ; to let off the water of baptism ; and to
take care that none use it thereafter.

Immersion is the only form of baptism recognised
by the Christians of Alexandria, who thus differ from
the Greeks. For in the Greek rite, though immer
sion is used, aspersion is regarded as of equal, if
not superior, importance. There is some ques
tion regarding the manner of the Coptic immersion,
whether each of the three immersions or only the
last is total ; for about the trine immersion there is
no controversy. Originally it is probable, from the
silence of the canons, that the child was plunged
wholly under water thrice ; but for the last three or
more centuries the custom has been for the priest to
dip the body first up to the middle, the second time
up to the neck, and the third time over the head.
Vansleb declares that in order to make the form of
a cross the priest takes the child's right wrist and
left foot in one hand, and left wrist and right foot in
the other l ; which may have been true, but sounds
like a species of torture. Among the Nestorians
the candidate stands in water up to the neck, and
the priest thrice dips the head under ; but the

1 Histoire, p. 81.

268 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vn.

Armenians and other eastern communities mingle
aspersion with the rite of immersion. All, how
ever, seem to agree, — and the Coptic canons on this
point are very explicit, — that in case of a weak or
sickly child immersion shall not be judged neces
sary, but the sacrament may be duly administered
by trine aspersion.

The same doctrine is laid down clearly in what
seems to be the earliest extant account of Christian
baptism, the * Teaching of the Apostles,' which may
belong to the second century1. There it is com
manded to ' baptise in living or fresh water in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost. If living water fails, use other water; and
use warm water, if cold would be hurtful. If neither
warm nor cold be obtainable, then pour water thrice
upon the head in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Before baptism let
both him who baptises and him who is to be baptised
fast, and all others who may ; you shall command
him who is to be baptised a day or two before/

While the essentials are the same, considerable
advance is made on the foregoing ritual, or at least
in explanation of it, in the earliest authentic account
of the sacrament as administered in the Church of
Alexandria. This account is found in the Apostolical
Constitutions, which date probably from the fourth
or fifth century2. Here it is enjoined that the candi
dates for baptism are to fast on the preparation of

1 See AiSaxq rS>v 'ATroordAaw by bishop Bryennios, Constanti
nople, 1883, pp. 27-29.

2 See Tattam's Apostolical Constitutions, London, 1848, p. 52
seq. for Coptic and English version: and Bunsen's Christianity
and Mankind, London, 1854, vol. vi. p. 465, for Greek version.

CH. vii.] The Seven Sacraments. 269

the sabbath ; and on that day are to assemble before
the bishop and kneel down. Then, laying on his
hands, the bishop is to exorcise from them every
evil spirit ; to breathe upon them ; and to seal them
upon the forehead, the ears, and the nose. They
keep the vigil in reading and exhortation.

Early next morning, at cockcrow, comes the bene
diction of the water, which must be drawn or flowing
into the font ; or, if water be scarce, they may use
any water available. The meaning of this obscure
passage doubtless is that the water should, if pos
sible, be drawn from the sacred well, such as we
have seen is found in Abu Sargah and most of the
Egyptian churches. Sponsors are required for those
too young to answer for themselves, and the sponsors
are to be parents or kinsmen. The bishop is to give
thanks over the oil, which he is to place in a vessel
or crewet, and to call it the 'oil of thanksgiving' —
the name 'myron' not being used here; — and a
second oil he is to exorcise, and call it the ' oil of
exorcism.'

A deacon, holding the oil of thanksgiving, is to
stand on the right hand of the priest ; and another
deacon with the oil of exorcism on his left. Then
follows the renunciation ; after which the candidates
are to be anointed with the oil of exorcism, and to
pass unclothed and to stand in the water. Each
now repeats the confession of faith, during which
he is dipped three times ; he is then taken up out
of the water, and anointed with the oil of thanks
giving or holy chrism ; is clothed, and enters the
church. There the bishop lays his hand upon them,
and with a prayer anoints each one upon the head,
and seals his forehead, saluting or kissing him ; and

270 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vn.

all are to ' say peace with their mouths.' Thus the
rite of confirmation is ended.

The ' seal/ here and elsewhere, seems to mean
the sign of the cross : by ' saying peace' the formula
of the pax is no doubt intended.

Immediately after baptism and confirmation fol
lows the holy communion. The bishop is enjoined
to give thanks over the bread and over the cup ;
and to bless also milk and honey. When the bread
has been divided, the bishop gives each a portion,
saying, ' This is the bread of heaven, the body of
Christ Jesus;' and with the cup he says, 'This is
the blood of Christ Jesus our Lord.' Likewise the
milk and honey are given to every one.

So much for the Apostolical Constitutions. Let
us turn now to another version of the ceremony,
written two or three centuries later by Severus1,
patriarch of Alexandria in 646 A. D. The ceremony
begins with a * mixing of the waters,' a phrase which
is not further explained here, but means that the
priest stirs or moves the water with his hand. Next
comes a burning of frankincense, with a prayer against
the ' princes of the power of the air ;' after which the
priest blows thrice with his breath on the water.
He then makes the sign of the cross, without oil,
thrice on the forehead of every child, and exorcises
him, making several more crosses upon the face.
The children turn to the west to make the renun
ciation, and back to the east again ; and the priest
makes three crosses on each one's forehead with
olive oil, — obviously the oil of exorcism, or oil of
the catechumens.

1 See Maxima Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum, Lyons, 1677, tom-
xii. p. 728.

CH. vii.] The Seven Sacraments. 271

Incense is now kindled, and then come the prayers
for the benediction of the water. The priest insuf
flates upon the surface in the form of a cross, and
with several invocations makes four crosses on the
water with his finger, signing each cross from east
to west and from north to south. Then from a
phial or crewet he pours chrism, or oil of thanks
giving, upon the water in three crosses. Next he
pours olive oil over the head of each child, places
him in the font, lays his right hand upon the head,
and with his left thrice lifts the child from the water,
saying, ' N. is baptised in the name of the Father,
Amen ; in the name of the Son, Amen ; and in the
name of the Holy Ghost, Amen.' The wording of
the ritual here signifies that the child is dipped three
times under water, and nothing is said about any
difference in the manner of the three immersions.

After the formula the child is taken out of the
font, and anointed three times on the forehead and
on all his members with holy chrism ; is dressed in
his own clothes ; and brought to the altar, where
he receives the eucharist. The whole ceremony is
brought to a conclusion by the priest crowning the
newly baptised children with garlands.

Here confirmation is rather implied than stated,
and nothing is said about the giving of milk and
honey. Bishop Macarius, whom I have cited above,
and who lived a century later, mentions the custom
as belonging to the early Church. In olden times,
he says1, baptism being administered only on Good
Friday at Alexandria, the patriarch and several
bishops met in the church of the Evangelists, un
covered the font, and read the exhortation. Next

1 Vansleb, Histoire, p. 85.

272 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vn.

day they assembled in the same building, where the
patriarch consecrated both the chrism and the oil of
exorcism or galilaeon, i.e., eAato*> ayaAAiao-eo)?, as they
call what the Latins term the * oleum catechumen-
orum.' This accomplished, they proceeded to the
baptistery, where the patriarch baptised three male
children; and when the bishops had baptised the
rest, the patriarch anointed them all with both
kinds of oil. Mass was now celebrated ; and after
the newly baptised children had received the bread
and wine, they received also milk and honey mixed
in the same chalice1.

At the present day the ceremonies do not differ
appreciably from those recorded by Severus. At
the commencement of the service a prayer of purifi
cation is said over the mother of the child, and she
is anointed with oil on the forehead : and though
this rite is not recorded in any ancient documents
before Vansleb, it is in the last degree unlikely that
it has arisen in modern or even mediaeval times.
Silence in questions of ritual is always a dangerous
argument : it is so very difficult for a writer, and
specially for an early writer, not to omit some detail,
as Severus quite wrongly omits all mention of milk
and honey. The exorcism, benediction of the water,
and anointing with oil, are still customary: but the
first oil used is pure olive oil, which is blessed by the
priest. The child is unclothed, raises his hands in

1 Neale strangely denies that there is any trace of the giving of
milk and honey in Coptic ritual (Gen. Introd., vol. ii. p. 971): but
states that it existed in the Church of Carthage, and is still retained
in that of Ethiopia. Rock (vol. iii, pt. 2. p. 102) says that milk
and honey were given in our own Church after the eucharist on
Maundy Thursday, and anciently to the newly baptised on Holy
Saturday.

CH. vii.] The Seven Sacraments. 273

the form of a cross to make the renunciation, turning
to the west, and recites the creed turning to the
east l. All his limbs are again anointed with the
second oil or the galilaeon. The burning of incense,
the insufflation, the three crosses of chrism on the
water, the trine immersion, the laying-on of hands or
confirmation, the anointing with chrism, — all have
their place in the service of to-day. The chrism is
anointed on forehead, eyes, nose, mouth, ears,
hands, feet, knees, back, shoulder, arms and heart :
then the priest breathes crosswise on the face of the
child, who is dressed in a white robe, crowned with a
crown, and girt with a crossing girdle about his waist.
He receives the holy communion : or, if too young to
take it, the priest dips a finger in the chalice, and
moistens the infant's tongue : and after the eucharist

he receives milk and honey mingled.

During all this ceremony, which with many prayers
and chaunts and lessons from the scriptures occupies
a long time, the sealed copy of the gospel is resting
on the gospel-stand 2 in the baptistery : tapers are
set about it, and are kindled during the greater part
of the service. After the celebration of the mass,
the clergy arrayed in their most gorgeous vestments
move in procession thrice round the church. The
child is carried by the bishop or priest, before whom
walks an acolyte bearing the cross of benediction 3,
upon which are fastened three lighted tapers : the
other clergy follow, and acolytes bearing candles and
beating bells and cymbals.

1 Vansleb (Histoire, p. 204) states that the priest writes the
child's name on a piece of paper and throws it into the water.

2 See illustration, vol. ii. p. 60. •' Ib. p. 232.

VOL. II. T

274 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. VH.

On the eighth day after baptism, and not before \
the girdle is loosened with a good deal of ceremonial :
for the act is regarded as the completion of the rite
of baptism. The ceremony is held in the baptistery
of the church, and not at private houses as Vansleb
alleges. A vessel of pure water is placed on the
gospel-stand, with a cross lying upon the rim and
tapers kindled around. Incense is burned, and
various prayers and portions of scripture recited.
The water is signed thrice in the form of a cross
by the priest, who then removes the girdle, and
washes the child and his clothes.

Though the use of lights at the baptismal service
is thus recognised by the Church of Egypt, the priest
does not hand a lighted taper to the candidate, as
was customary in western ritual.

It will be observed that the practice of the Coptic
differs from that of the western Church in the union
of confirmation with baptism, although they are
regarded essentially as two sacraments, not as one ;
in the use of the holy chrism for confirmation ; and
in allowing confirmation by the priest as well as by
the bishop. In all these particulars the Copts have
retained the early teaching of the catholic Church,
which the westerns have abandoned 2.

1 Abu Dakn makes the rite take place on the third day : and in
the same passage he affirms that salt is mingled with the chrism by
the Copts, — a monstrous statement. Some Syrians in Cairo
adopted this heretical practice in the time of Christodulus, but not
the Copts The Malabar Christians mingled oil and salt with
their eucharistic bread, as recorded in Govea's account of the
Portuguese mission: see the French translation published at
Brussels in 1609.

2 The words of St. Basil regarding baptism should be remem
bered. He says : — ' Consecramus autem aquam baptismatis et

CH. vii.] The Seven Sacraments. 275

THE EUCHARIST l.

To discuss fully the ceremonies appertaining to
the Coptic celebration of the mass would require a
voluminous treatise in itself. But such discussion
being beyond the scope of this work, and in some
sense beside its purpose, it must suffice here to
indicate the most prominent or peculiar points of
Coptic usage, avoiding altogether all questions con
cerning authenticity of texts and order of prayers in
the various liturgies, — questions which are too well
known to the world to require restating, and too
little studied by the writer to make his remarks
other than incompetent.

No minister beneath the rank of priest is allowed
to celebrate the korban : but a simple priest cannot
communicate a bishop or any higher dignitary2.
When the patriarch celebrates, he administers the

oleum unctionis, praeterea ipsum qui baptismum accipit, ex quibus
scriptis? Nonne a tacita secretaque traditione? Ipsam porro
olei unctionem quis sermo scripto proditus docuit ? lam ter im-
mergi hominem unde est traditum? .... Nonne ex privata et
arcana hac traditione?' See Divi Basilii Magni Opera, p. 3248.
Paris, 1566. So St. Augustine remarks : ' Unless this sign be used,
whether on the forehead of believers, or on the water whereby they
are regenerated, or on the chrism whereby they are anointed,
nothing is rightly accomplished/

1 Arabic ^b^lJl or the offering, y-ljubl the mass, u^-^.jJl the
sacrifice, or »jj-o j*Jz a-s^.JJl the bloodless sacrifice : Coptic,
*f~rtpOCc{>Op^.. The first of these names, ' korban,' is identical
with the word used by our Lord, as given in the English version :
it answers to our ' oflete.'

2 Vansleb, Histoire, pp. 202-3.

T 2

276 Ancient Coptic Churches. * [CH. vn.

oflete first to himself and then to the other clergy
according to their orders : but if, when a priest is
celebrating, the patriarch wishes to communicate,
he goes to the altar after the fraction, repeats the
prayer of absolution and the confession, and com
municates to himself and to any others whom he
pleases. Every bishop has the same right in his
own diocese. A kummus in communicating takes
the spoon himself, but receives the wafer from the
priest, who places it in the spoon : a priest re
ceiving from a priest does not touch with his hand
any part of the sacred elements, nor any vessel.
The celebrant must wear dalmatic and amice on
ordinary days, and all the seven vestments on high
festivals.

At the present day those who receive are allowed
within the haikal ; but originally entrance seems to
have been denied to all below the rank of deacon.
The deacon stands not beside the priest but fronting
him, i. e. on the eastern side of the altar, and facing
the people. This custom is said to have originated
in the times of feud between the Jacobite and Mel-
kite factions, when it was no uncommon thing for a
Melkite mob to rush into a Coptic church, slay the
priest at the altar, and scatter the sacred elements.
If ordered by the priest, the 'deacon may give the cup
to communicants, as appears from the Apostolical
Constitutions and from later authorities.

We have already seen that infants are admitted
to the communion immediately after baptism and
confirmation : and at any ordinary celebration to
day one may see children in arms receiving.
Previous fasting is indispensable to a right com
munion, and this canon applies even to children :

CH. vii.j The Seven Sacraments. 277

it is a rule beyond question and without exception.
The time of fasting dates from vespers of the day
before the celebration. Bodily cleanliness is a
further necessity both on the part of the people
and the priest : the latter is specially required to
wash his feet before entering the church. Com
munion is not to be administered to persons un
known, i.e. to any strangers whom the priest has
not examined concerning their profession of faith,
for fear lest an infidel receive it unawares. The
Pontifical of Gabriel specially cautions the priest
to be careful about women, as they come veiled to
mass. Confession also is rigidly enforced, and
penance inflicted in case of sin : and the severity
of the penance is doubtless the reason why so few
to-day partake of the holy mysteries.

All receive the korban standing and not kneeling :
indeed kneeling is altogether against the Coptic
custom, except on the day of Pentecost, their attitude
of humility being prostration. A communicant is
not allowed during the rest of the day to eat or
drink with a Jew or Muslim ; nor may he remove
from his mouth anything which has once entered
there ; nor may he smoke tobacco. Anciently,
according to Vansleb, it was also customary to eat
lupines directly after the celebration, as a measure
of defence against certain Sabaeans, who frequented
the Coptic churches, but to whom any fruit grown
on an angular stalk was an abomination.

The bread used for the korban is of the finest
wheaten flour specially purchased out of the church
moneys. It must be baked in the oven attached for
that purpose to most if not all of the sacred build
ings : and the baking must be done by the door-

278 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vn.

keeper or sacristan 1, who during the process must
chaunt fixed portions of the psalms in a solemn
manner 2. The bread must be leavened : it must be
baked on the morning on which it is required for the
mass, and must be made up into round cakes or
wafers, each about three inches in diameter and an
inch in greatest thickness ; and it must be stamped
on the upper surface with a device of crosses, round
which runs a sacred legend in a band. Denzinger 3

Fig. 33.— Eucharistic Bread.

gives a cut in which the legend is <LVIOC ^ <LVIOC
^ A.VIOC ^ ^x-rpioc ^ c^&eurr (it should, of course,

1 Called, therefore, ^J]\. Women are specially forbidden to
prepare the wafer.

2 Possibly for a similar reason the oflete was sometimes called
' singing-bread ' in England.

3 Kit. Or., torn. i. p. 81. The Diet. Christ. Antiq. has the
same cut.

CH. vii.] The Seven Sacraments. 279

be KTpioc) : Neale l reproduces the same illustra
tion, which is taken from Sollerius, to whom all
statements concerning the form of the Coptic oflete
seem ultimately traceable. Vansleb2 however gives
the same inscription omitting the c<L&eurr ; and
it is possible that the versions of the legend so
recorded were actually found : but undoubtedly the
inscription at present used differs, and is ^ <LVIOC
icx^poc 3< <LVJOC A.e£.rt<LToc ^ <LVIOC o oeoc,
as rendered in the accompanying woodcut, which is
from a photograph of a wafer made at the cathedral.
Nor have I seen any variation from this form at any
of the churches. The diagrams given by Neale
and Denzinger are further inaccurate : for within
the band of writing, which should not be quite on
the edge of the wafer, there are twelve equal crosses
each marked off in a square of its own, the whole
arrangement forming one large cross. Neale indeed
speaks of twelve crosses : but his figure gives eight
in little detached squares, and eight more in a larger
central square. Denzinger's design is the same :
but he gives another rather different cut, which pro
fesses to represent the back of the wafer. This, I
think, is a mistake : for the wafer is never stamped
upon the back.

The inmost square of the wafer, consisting of four
smaller squares, is called in Coptic ic&o2UKon,
icfLLSUKort, or cnoT2aKOtt, a name rightly explained
by Renaudot as a corruption of the Greek StcriroTLKov,
sc. o-co/ia, i.e. ' the body of the Lord/ The isbodikon
is reserved for intinction in the chalice.

1 Patriarchate of Alexandria, vol. ii. p. 214. It is obvious here
how the mistake of $£ for K arose.

2 Histoire, p. 100.

280 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vn.

Greek custom is not far removed from the Coptic,
as regards the wafer. For the Greeks use a small
round cake stamped with a square, called the a/^oy,
which is divided into four smaller squares which
contain the letters Tc XC Nl KA. The d^vos stands
out above the wafer, and is cut off in the prothesis : at
consecration it is broken into four portions, of which
Fc is put into the chalice, XC is given among the
clergy, and the rest among the laity.

The Armenians also stamp the housel, but merely
with a figure of our Lord. The wafer is unleavened,
and is baked in an oven attached to the church on
the morning before celebration. All the four parts
into which the consecrated wafer is broken are put
into the chalice.

Among the Nestorians the wafer is made of fine
flour from wheat gleaned by young maidens, which
is ground in a handmill and mingled with leaven.
The leaven is prepared by the clergy, and the bread
made, within the precincts of the sacred building.
The Nestorian wafer also is stamped with a device :
it resembles the Coptic bread in size, but is much
thinner.

In our own country the wafer was sometimes
stamped. Rock l cites Eldefonso for the statement
that the inscription should be XPC ITFC or tT5, the
only variation being XPC AH : but other varia
tions are certainly found 2. A wooden mould for

1 Vol. i. p. 149, note 24.

<2 M. de Fleury has sent me a drawing of some breads from a
ninth-century missal in the Bibliotheque Nationale. Two of these
are covered with various inscriptions, one containing REX DS
ras XFS VERITAS LUX PAX GLORIA VIA, and the cyphers
of the four evangelists disposed round a large central cross.

CH. vir.] The Seven Sacraments. 281

such breads is preserved in the museum at Dublin :
but sometimes the mould was of iron, and was called
a singing-iron for a reason analogous to that sug
gested above. Thus in 1429 at York there were be
queathed 'tria instrumenta ferri, vocata syngyngirons,
ij alia instrumenta ferri pro pane ad eucharistiam or-
dinando1.' That the practice of stamping the housel
is very early seems proved by the continuous testi
mony of artistic monuments. The wafers figured in
the sixth-century mosaics at Ravenna, in S. Vitale
and S. Apollinare in Classe, are designed with a
central cross : on the golden altar of Milan, dating
from the ninth century, St. Ambrose is figured
standing behind an altar, on which are four crossed
wafers : a like wafer is shown in the eleventh-
century missal of St. Denys 2 : and wherever the
wafer is painted in Coptic pictures, it is represented
with a single cross in the same manner. This fact
in no way militates against the antiquity of the
present Coptic design, being attributable merely
to the smallness of the scale on which the wafer
has to be rendered 3.

The eucharistic wine is unfermented, and is made
from the juice of dried grapes or raisins, which are
left to soak for a considerable time in water, and
then crushed in a wine-press. A press of the kind

1 Raine, York Fabric Rolls, Glossary, p. 353.

2 La Messe, vol. i. pis. viii, xiii.

3 In the Coptic MS. of the fourth century, to which allusion has
been already made, the prayer of consecration varies from all other
known MSS. in having between the words ' didst give thanks ' and
'didst break' the expression ^.KCc^p^-VI^G, i. e. ' didst seal':
and though the term is commonly used in Coptic to denote the
making of the sign of the cross, yet in this connexion it seems to
suggest that the wafer in use at that period was stamped.

282 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vn.

at Abu-'s-Sifain has already been described : but
the wine is usually made at Cairo in the satellite
church called by the same name in the Harat-az-
Zuailah. There it is distributed to the churches in
large wicker-covered jars, holding three or four
gallons apiece, some of which I saw stored in a
deep aumbry. The wine is made of sufficient
strength and in sufficient quantity to last the whole
year round. Raisin-wine is prohibited rather than
enjoined by the canons : but the use of it doubtless
arose partly under pressure in times of persecution,
and partly from the cultivation of the vine becoming
obsolete in Egypt. In case of necessity even date-
wine is allowed. But whatever wine is used must
be pure, untrampled by the foot, and free from all
acid flavour. Offerings of wine 1 for the mass were
common in ancient times : and there is a special
canon forbidding the priest to receive it in the vessel
brought by the layman. Most of the churches now
have a small crewet or phial of unconsecrated wine
kept on a little bracket attached to the haikal-screen.
Wine of the same kind and made in the same manner
was found in use by the Christians at Malabar about
the year 1600: but that sect mingled oil and salt
with their eucharistic bread, — a practice strongly
denounced by all Coptic authorities.

Three liturgies seem to have been used from very
early times by the Church of Alexandria, — the
liturgy of St. Basil, of St. Gregory of Nazianzen,
and of St. Cyril : the last is also called by the name

1 When a new cask was broached, the first of the wine was
often given to the church. In the Coptic liturgies, for this reason,
the wine is often called *f- £.TT£.p2CH, or the first-fruits.

CH. vii.] The Seven Sacraments. 283

of St. Mark. On ordinary occasions the liturgy of
St. Basil is recited : that of St. Gregory is reserved
for three solemn festivals, the midnight masses of
Epiphany, Easter, and Christmas : and that of St.
Cyril is used during the seasons of the Great and
the Little Fast, i.e. Lent and Advent1. The hour
for ordinary mass on Sunday is always tierce : no
second celebration is allowed on the same altar
during the day, and no vestment or vessel which
has served once at the mass may be used again till
the day following.

At the commencement of the service all who
enter the church salute towards the altar, and kiss
the hem of the veil which hangs before the door of
the sanctuary, or else prostrate themselves before
the threshold. This custom of course does not
apply to women, who worship apart in the galleries
or other place appointed. It is usual now for the
choir to chaunt the ' Hymns of Moses ' while the
altar is being prepared by the deacons. Besides
the ordinary covering, which is generally coloured,
the altar must have a second vestment, which
shrouds the whole fabric. All the vessels, such as
the chalice, paten, dome, ark, and spoon, must be in
readiness upon the altar, upon which also are two
candlesticks with tapers.

Before the prayer of preparation the priest must
examine all these vessels, and see that the altar-
board is firm in its place beneath the coverlets ; and
he must set the ark or coffer upon it, and the chalice
within the coffer. After the prayers of preparation
and thanksgiving he goes to the door of the haikal

1 Lord Bute states that this liturgy is only used once a year, viz.
on the Friday before Palm Sunday (Coptic Morning Service, p. ii).

284 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vn.

to take the oflete from the hand of the deacon.
Three wafers are brought upon a tray: the priest
touches them to see if they are freshly made, wipes
them, and waves his hand over them : then he
selects one of the three, which is carried to the altar
together with the crewet or phial of wine. This
ceremony seems to correspond with the greater
entrance of the Greek liturgy : but it is not
now attended with the same pomp in the Coptic
as in either the Constantinopolitan or the Melkite
Egyptian ritual. Tapers are next kindled, and held
by the deacons beside the altar : one also holds the
crewet, and another a vessel of water. Thus a pro
cession moves round the altar with tapers and thuri
bles, the priest carrying the wafer in a small silken
corporal, or, as is more usual, upon one of the tiny
mats described above, Having made the circuit of
the altar the priest stands in his own place before
the altar, facing eastward, and turning his back to
the congregation. A little cold water is now mixed
with the wine in the chalice, not warm water as in
the Greek celebration. During the prayer of obla
tion, which follows, the priest signs both the elements
with the sign of the cross : and when the prayer is
ended, he places upon the chalice the little mat or
tabak, which serves as its cover, and which answers
.to the lesser veil of the rubrics. Similarly he places
immediately over the wafer a small round veil marked
with three crosses : above it he sets the dome or
star : and then, placing the paten upon the ark, so
that it rests also on the chalice 1, he covers the whole
elements with the larger veil, which is of silk, and

1 The ark is just high enough to hold the chalice : the rim of
the chalice is flush' with the top of the ark.

CH. vii.] The Seven Sacraments. 285

has a large cross embroidered upon it. This accom
plished, the priest kneels and kisses the altar.

At the prayer of absolution to the Son, the
celebrant and his attendants kneel outside the
haikal in a circle before the door, bowing from
time to time. Then taking the censer, he stands
holding it before the altar during the prayer of
incense : he waves it over the elements : and walks
round the altar swinging the thurible, while the
choir sing the three anthems of the incense. He
then descends, and stands before the door facing
eastward, and scatters the fumes about the doorway :
after which he turns about and swings the censer
towards the people in every part of the church,
while chaunt and song continue ; and as the priest
moves censing them, the people rise and bend their
heads.

The epistle is now read in Coptic from the lectern,
which stands a few feet from the haikal door in the
choir, and the reader faces eastward, having his back
to the people. During the reading clouds of incense
are still arising in the haikal ; and when it is finished,
and the choir have sung a brief chaunt, the same
lesson is read in Arabic ; but the reader now stands
on the steps before the haikal and faces the congre
gation. A lection from the Acts is read in the same
manner ; or sometimes in lieu a chapter is recited
from the history of the Church, or the life of a saint.
And when the reading is ended, the reader kneels
and bows his head to the ground before the door of
the sanctuary. The first gospel is read by the priest,
who stands before the people holding the book in his
left hand, and in his right a lighted taper.

From this point processions round the altar con-

286 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vn.

tinue with burning of incense up to the trisagion,
which is chaunted by the choir. Then comes the
prayer of the holy gospel, said by the priest facing
eastward ; and after it the deacon, coming out at the
door of the haikal, shouts aloud, ' Stand ye people
for the holy gospel/ Hereupon the celebrant
censes the sealed silver book of the gospel, and de
livers it to another priest, who, after kissing it and
laying it upon the lectern, sings the gospel in Coptic,
facing eastward. As he sings, the celebrant stands
facing westward before him, and censes the textus
continually ; a deacon on each side of him holds a
lighted taper, and a candle is burning upon the tall
standard candlestick, which is always set up for this
purpose beside the lectern1. An Arabic version of
the same passage is then given from the doorway,
the deacons still holding their tapers by the reader,
who now faces the people ; and the celebrant still
waves the thurible. Deacons and acolytes, who
generally wear the tarbush, as do all the people during
the service, remove it at the reading of the gospel.

When the gospel is thus finished, the priest and
all the clergy kiss the silver book ; and in olden
times the gospel was wrapped in a silken veil, being
carried in procession about the church, and even
given to kiss to the people2. The lights are ex-

1 See illustration on p. 66 supra.

2 It is possible that this custom may account for the practice of
enclosing the textus in a complete shell of metal. This procession
and return to the haikal correspond to the lesser entrance of the
Greek ritual. In the West the custom of lighting a candle at the
reading of the gospel was general as well as 'per totas orientis
ecclesias.' (Hieron. adv. Vigilant, iii. 13.) Rock mentions that in
our own country after the lection the subdeacon took the book for
the bishop to kiss, then to priests and people : and that the tapers

< H. vii.] The Seven Sacraments. 287

tinguished and the gospel borne back. to the sanc
tuary. All the ministers stand round the door while
the prayer after the gospel is recited inaudibly.
Notices of services and other matters are here given ;
and if there be no homily, at this point occurs the
dismissal of the catechumens.

The choir now sing an anthem, after which the
priest falls down and kisses the threshold of the
sanctuary, while reciting in a low voice the prayer
of the veil or the curtain. Then, ascending to the
altar, the priest kisses it, while the choir stand with
out the door, singing in antiphons. Next, after the
prayer for the catholic Church of Christ, and for
the congregation, the creed is repeated by all together;
whereupon the priest washes his hands thrice, and
turning round wrings them dry before the people.
Then, after bowing to the other clergy and making
the sign of the cross over the congregation, he utters
the words * Peace be unto all/ and recites the prayer

were then extinguished (vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 32). The Ordo Romanus
says that the deacon received the gospel from the subdeacon, and
held it to be kissed by clergy and laity. Pope Honorius III in
the thirteenth century forbade the gospel to be kissed by any lay
man except an anointed prince, quite forgetting the meaning of
the ceremony. In Russian and Greek churches the kiss is allowed
generally to laymen, as with the Copts. In Egypt, however, the
book seems originally to have been kissed while open by priests, and
to have been closed for the people. This kissing the gospel is, of
course, quite distinct from the pax or kiss of peace, which seems
to have been first used in England in the thirteenth century. The
pax is mentioned as an instrument first in the constitutions of arch
bishop Gray, of York. It was abandoned gradually after the refor
mation, owing chiefly to disputes about precedence. Yet the gospel
was sometimes kissed in England instead of the pax, and the cross
in Germany. (See Lay Folks' Mass Book, ed. Canon Simmons,
pp. 221, 296.)

288 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vn.

of the kiss of peace. Meanwhile he removes the
greater veil or corporal from the oflete, and the
paten from the chalice ; and on the top of the chalice
one may see now the lesser veil l resting, while the
priest holds high over his head a like veil or tabak
of green colour with a golden cross for all the people
to see. At the words ' Greet one another with a
holy kiss/ the priest turns westward, and bows slowly
to all the people ; and the people salute each other,
each turning to his neighbour and touching his hand.
The triumphal hymn follows, and the people shout
' agus, agus, agus,' retaining to this day the ancient
words. Now the lesser veil, or red tabak, is removed
from the chalice ; and the priest taking it in his right
hand, holds also the green tabak in his left, and raises
his arms. And in like manner he takes many more
little mats, which are upon the altar, and holds them
with outspread arms2, during the commemoration of
the Redemption. It may be that the mats are so
consecrated for subsequent usage at the communion.
At the institution, the celebrant first holds his
hands over the smoke of the thurible, which is pre
sented by the deacon ; then signs the oflete thrice,
and breaks it into three portions, which, however,

1 The lesser veil, shown in this manner, is usually a small
round red mat, embroidered with a cross in gold.

2 I cannot find any explanation of this custom in the rubrics,
but merely record what I have witnessed. In Lord Bute's ' Coptic
Morning Service,' p. 80, the rubric directs the priest to remove the
chalice-veil; to sign himself, the deacon, and the people with it;
and so replace it. The work cited is not however quite an accurate
guide to the Monophysite ritual ; but there is a very general agree
ment, because the converts to the Church of Rome among the
Copts are prohibited from becoming Latins, and bidden to retain
their national liturgy.

CH. vii.] The Seven Sacraments. 289

remain contiguous. The chalice is signed in the
same manner, and moved in the form of a cross
before the priest. During this ceremony a lighted
taper is held by deacons on either side of the cele
brant, and all the deacons, acolytes, and choristers
remove their tarbushes. Just before the invocation
all the congregation bend low their heads, murmur
ing words of adoration, and rise and bend again.
After a sentence or two from the priest all the
people cry * Kyrie eleeson.' It is at this point
that the offertory is made. Two acolytes move
about the church, each bearing an alms-dish, and
a taper which is specially lighted for the purpose,
doubtless in emblematic remembrance of the familiar
text. Chaunts continue to be sung by the choir during
the prayer of intercession, and the commemoration
of the living, and the diptychs of the dead1; and
during the same period the celebrant from time to
time holds aloft in either hand one of the little mats,
which lie in great numbers upon the altar. The
cover of the elements is also changed ; and for the
saffron-coloured veil which rested before over them,
another of deep crimson with a white border is

1 It is customary among the Copts once every year, in the season
of Lent, to write on a piece of paper the names of living and dead
relatives, whom they wish commemorated at the mass. I have
known laymen go round all the churches of Cairo in one day,
leaving at each a paper in which is wrapped a fee varying accord
ing to the means of the supplicant. The usual form of com
memoration is, — ' Remember, O Lord, thy servants, whose names
are here written, in the kingdom of heaven ; the living, M. or N. :
the dead, M. or N.' Special prayers for special cases are some
times added : thus for a son dismissed from his employment a
father will ask intercession in the words, 'Loosen, O Lord, the
perplexities of Yusuf.'

VOL. II. U

290 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vn.

substituted, and the people are signed with the sign of
the cross. Now comes the preface to the fraction ;
and when the priest says ' The holy body,' he takes
the housel, and, placing it in his left hand, lays his
finger on the spot where it is broken. And at the
words 'The precious blood' he removes his finger
from the bread, and dipping it lightly in the wine,
makes the sign of the cross upon it. With the same
finger he now signs the isbodikon and another part of
the housel, so that three crosses in all are made upon
the sacred element. After the pax commences the
prayer of the fraction, during which the priest breaks
the housel into five portions, which he arranges on
the paten in the form of a cross, leaving the isbodikon
unbroken in the centre ; and the smaller portions are
again broken up into little pieces, which are called
' pearls,' as in the Greek ceremonial.

Next all the people say the Lord's prayer, — not, of
course, kneeling, but standing and stretching out
both hands and looking upwards, according to
ancient custom. At the ' sancta sanctis ' the priest
elevates the isbodikon over his head, lowers it into
the chalice, and with it makes the sign of the cross
upon the wine. Taking it out he signs the remainder
of the housel with it, and so accomplishes three
crosses of the bread upon the wine, and of the wine
upon the bread : whereupon the isbodikon is placed
in the chalice. When the confession of faith has
been recited, the veil is placed upon the housel, and
the priest kisses the altar, reciting a sentence of
adoration. On the removal of the veil which
follows, the star or dome is seen resting on the
paten, and under it a small green veil embroidered
with crosses, which covers the wafer. Suddenly the

CH. vii.] The Seven Sacraments. 291

priest takes the paten in his hand, and raising it
over his head, turns towards the people, and stands
in the doorway of the sanctuary thus holding it aloft,
while all the people shout ' Blessed is he that cometh
in the name of the Lord.' During the consecration
a deacon stands on either side of the priest holding a
burning taper.

The celebrant himself communicates, and ad
ministers to the other clergy, and to the laity in
order. Each one as he receives holds in his hand
one of the little mats ; and when he has partaken,
he wipes his lips with the mat carefully, lest any
particle fall upon the ground. The communion is
administered by means of intinction with the spoon,
but the isbodikon is specially reserved for the
ministers of the altar. If a bishop be present, he
communicates himself, dipping the spoon into the
chalice. Even little children receive, and are
admitted into the haikal. Women however are not
so admitted 1 ; but the priest comes down from the
sanctuary and administers to them in their own
place, whether in the gallery or at the west end of
the church. Communicants now are very few, and
for the most part children. They walk round and
round the altar, and continue receiving until all the
wafer is consumed. Then the priest drinks to the
dregs what remains in the chalice : wipes the inside

1 In the Celtic rite, women were not allowed to receive unless
they were veiled, an eastern custom ordered to be observed in the
Apostolical Constitutions, and still remaining with the Copts. Mr.
Warren mentions also an Irish church in North Munster, where
women were forbidden to enter, — as was the custom at Anba
Shanudah : and another church, where they were not allowed to
approach the altar. See Lit. and Kit. of Celtic Church, pp. 136-

138-

U 2

292 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vn.

with his finger and licks his finger : washes out the
chalice with water, and drinks the rinsings. In like
manner the paten is washed, and the rinsings are
drunk by the deacon. I have seen a deacon after
the celebration place the spoon repeatedly upon his
lips and eyes and forehead, — a custom which carries
one back, very curiously, through fifteen hundred
years to the time of Cyril of Jerusalem, who, in the
middle of the fourth century, wrote in his directions
for communicants as follows : — ' Further, touching
with thy hands the moisture remaining on thy lips,
sanctify both thine eyes and thy forehead and the
other organs of sense1.' What other Church pre
serves in so startling a manner the minutiae of
primitive tradition ?

Finally, when the vessels are washed and the
blessing given, water is sprinkled by the bishop, if
he be present, over the altar and in the air about the
sanctuary and over the ministers. Then the bishop
comes out from the haikal preceded by a deacon,
who carries a silver basin and ewer : the deacon
pours water over the hand of the bishop : and the
bishop scatters it in all directions over the people,
who throng round holding up their faces. Eulogiae,
or unconsecrated wafers, are now distributed, and
the congregation disperses. These wafers are of
the same size and form as that used for consecration,
and neither smaller nor mingled with salt, as Vansleb2

1 My note of this custom was written in the very words more
than three years before I knew of the passage from Cyril. (Catech.
Mystag. 22.)

2 Histoire, p. 100. The statement, however, is open to question.
The term employed in the Greek rite for this wafer is dvriSapov :
in Latin ' panis benedictus.' In our own Church the blessed bread

CH. vii.] The Seven Sacraments. 293

with doubtful truth alleges to have been customary
two centuries ago. The Copts do not use salt in
any part of their ritual whatever.

So far I have not mentioned the use of the fan
or flabellum : partly because it is not mentioned in
the rubrics, and partly for another reason. For in the
elaborate ceremonial of the mass to-day, inasmuch
as generally little more than the celebrant is visible
through the narrow opening of the haikal-door, and
the celebrant's movements are rendered obscure by
his eastward position, and sometimes also by clouds
of incense, it is very difficult to follow intelligently
the action of the ritual, and to ascertain what happens
at any particular moment1. Moreover, as the fan
now in use is merely a corporal or veil, and the
number and usage of the veils are somewhat per
plexing, it is the more troublesome to decide at what
point a veil is waved in place of the flabellum. I
believe however that the elements are fanned just
before and just after consecration2 : but repeat that
conclusive observation of all the details in the
eucharistic service is next to impossible.

Reservation of the consecrated housel is not
practised in the Church of Egypt, which therein
differs from the Church of Constantinople. For the
Greeks enclose the reserved host in a casket of silver

and kiss of peace were forbidden to notorious sinners. See Rock,
vol. iii. part 2. p. 185.

1 Rubrics tallying more or less with parts of the foregoing
description of the mass, may be found in Hammond's Liturgies,
pp. 195-233; and Renaudot, Lit. Or. torn. i. pp. 153-302, where
much valuable information is collected.

2 The canons of Athanasius partly imply this: see Vansleb,
Histoire, p. 288 fin. It agrees too with the rubrics in the liturgy
of St. Chrysostom.

294 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vn.

or wood, which is wrapped in a silken veil, and hung
up against the eastern wall of the sanctuary, with a
lamp burning before it. Among the Copts it was
ordered that if a crumb of the wafer were found after
the priest had drunk the rinsings, it should be given
to a deacon, or even to a layman who had not drunk
water : but if not even a layman were forthcoming,
the particle was to be wrapped in a veil, and placed
between two burning tapers with the eastern lamp in
the niche also burning. The priest was then to
watch beside the host till the mass on the following
day, to receive the crumb fasting, and to undergo a
severe penance for his negligence. In the eleventh
century the monks of Dair Abu Makar in the
western desert were in the habit of reserving the
host from Palm Sunday to Maundy Thursday.
When the patriarch Christodulus J discovered this
practice he forbade it, as against the rule of the
Church, under pain of excommunication. The
monks, however, persisted, and insolently asked
whether he were better than his predecessors, who
had allowed the custom : whereupon Christodulus
withdrew into the library in the tower of the
monastery, and composed there a treatise, which was
read publicly by a bishop, and proved so convincing
as to silence opposition. Henceforth the custom
was abandoned. Renaudot, in relating this anecdote,
remarks that the reservation here spoken of does
not mean the reservation for the communion of the
sick, which was always customary, the isbodikon
being reserved after its immersion in the chalice
at consecration. It cannot however be questioned
that this distinction is quite erroneous : neither the

1 Renaudot, Hist. Pat. Alex., p. 429.

CH. vii.] The Seven Sacraments. 295

isbodikon nor any other part of the housel was or is
reserved for the communion of sick persons 1, nor for
mingling in the chalice at a subsequent celebration,
as was customary in both Greek and Roman ritual.
The legend of the devouring of the eucharist by a
serpent and the consequent discontinuance of reser
vation has already been mentioned.

Consecration must always take place in a sacred
building, except in cases of extreme necessity in
regions where there are no churches. As regards
the communion of sick persons, no doubt there have
been times in Coptic history when the korban was
kept over the day of celebration for their advantage ;
or rather for the advantage of the priests, who were
thus saved the trouble of consecration at unforeseen
moments. Nevertheless, where this practice pre
vailed, it was distinctly an abuse : for the canons
strictly order that, in case of need, when the sick
person is unable to come to the church, the conse
cration must notwithstanding be accomplished within
the sacred walls and there alone ; then the priest is
to go in procession, bearing the korban and accom
panied by deacons and acolytes, who carry thuribles
and tapers. And although now the ceremony is
shorn of all its pomp, still both rule and custom are
that the priest takes a portion of the consecrated
wafer, which has been signed with the wine, to the
house of the sick person. There if, as sometimes
happens, he finds that the invalid from causes either
physical or moral is unfitted to receive the eucharist,
he does not carry it back to the church, but consumes

1 So Vansleb, Histoire, p. 130. So also Pococke, vol. i. p. 248,
states that none of the Copts, not even those who have joined the
Church of Rome, reserve the host. I can vouch for present custom.

296 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vn.

it forthwith himself. In order that he may be ready
for this contingency, he is obliged to go to the house
fasting. The housel is only given to the sick after
confession, and in no case where sense or conscious
ness is failing.

Great reverence and care are required of those
who handle the sacred elements. In the Pontifical of
Gabriel a young and unpractised deacon is forbidden
to hold the cup or to administer with the spoon,
for fear lest he might spill a drop of the wine, or let
fall an atom of the wafer. If the spoon slips into
the chalice, the deacon must so leave it, and use
another. Similar cautions abound in the canons
from the earliest times. Negligence on the part of a
priest who lets fall an atom of the housel is punished
by forty days' inhibition from the service of the altar
and from communion, fasting to be enforced during
that period, and fifty prostrations to be made nightly.

The doctrine of the real presence, of the change of
the bread and wine into the very body and blood of
our Lord, is held by the Copts in its most physical
literalness. When Gabriel, the LXX patriarch, went
to the Natrun monasteries to be proclaimed there,
he had a dispute with the monks regarding the
confession of faith preceding the eucharist. It ran
thus : — * I believe and confess that this is the body
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which he
received from the mother of God, the holy Virgin
Mary, and made one with his Godhead' Some of
the monks refused the last clause, on the ground
that it was a later addition : but finally agreed to
receive it when further qualified by the words ' with
out sundering, mingling, or confounding.' This is
the form which remains in use at present : and it is

CH. vii.] The Seven Sacraments. 297

preceded by the words — * The holy body, the precious,
pure and true blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of our
God. The body and blood of Emmanuel, our God,
this is in unity of substance/ The invocation too
prays that the Holy Spirit may come and * make
this bread the body of Christ and this wine his blood.'
And the reality of the belief is shown by a legend of
the eleventh century. It is related that a certain
anchorite named Peter had his forefinger bound up
for fifteen years ; and when he came to die, two priests
attending him with great importunity prevailed upon
him to show the finger. When he took off the wrap
ping, his finger was seen to be red, as if coloured
with fresh blood. Peter then told them that once
when saying mass in church (apparently at the Red
Monastery), when he came to the consecration of
the chalice and touched the surface of the wine with
his finger, he said within himself, * Will this indeed
become the blood of Christ?' Thereupon the wine
rose in the chalice so as to cover his finger, and
stained it with a stain of blood, which remained
indelible. From that day forward he never con
secrated again.

Masses for the repose of the souls of the dead in
the Romish sense are entirely unknown in the Church
of Egypt, for the simple reason that the Copts have
no belief whatever in purgatory. Apparently they
hold that the soul after death continues in an inter
mediate state, awaiting judgment, during a period
of forty days : and during this period, or indeed after
it, prayer for the dead and mention at the mass is
not discouraged. But there is no expiation of sin
after death by suffering, and no traffic in the terrors
of eternity.

298 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v

PENANCE OR CONFESSION l.

The sacrament of confession was held in the early
Church of Egypt, and is held unwaveringly as a
point of doctrine at the present day. But, needless
to say, doctrine and practice have conflicted at
various points of Coptic history. In the middle of
the twelfth century John, the LXXII patriarch, is
even said to have abolished the sacrament altogether :
and about 1174 Markus ibn Al Kunbari made a
great stir throughout Egypt by preaching that there
could be no forgiveness of sin without confession.
More than two centuries earlier Sanutius, the LV
patriarch, spoke very clearly upon the point : for in
sending letters of absolution to a certain deacon he
wrote, ' the bonds of this deacon are loosed by my
word, nor is there cause why any of the faithful
should hinder him from the eucharist': and subse
quently he gave his opinion, that whosoever receives
the holy communion without confession of sin only
makes his sin the greater.

Confession can only be made to a priest : and in
these days it is only the kummus or archpriest who
can give absolution. After hearing the confession
the kummus enjoins such penance as he deems fit :
and this must be accomplished before absolution is
granted. A general confession of sin is not regarded
as sufficient ; nor could the priest mete out the due
measure of penance for sin veiled in general expres
sions. Silent confession over the smoke of burning

1 Arabic <

CH. vii.] The Seven Sacraments. 299

incense is said to have been substituted for open ad
mission of guilt, when John abolished the sacrament :
and the same custom spread to the Ethiopians. But
that departure from canon law was only temporary,
though the neglect of right confession lasted for a
long period. The form of absolution seems to be
the same that is contained in the prayer of absolu
tion to the Son, and is deprecatory.

The penitent stands before the priest with bended
knees and bowed head. Both say the Lord's prayer
together; and after some other prayers the priest
gives the absolution and his blessing. During the
orisons the penitent makes three prostrations before
the altar, and one before his father confessor, whose
feet he kisses beseeching his prayers. Penance fol
lows, and must be strictly carried out, the penitent
rendering account of all his thoughts and actions to
the priest. When the penitent has accomplished all
that was enjoined, the priest says over him a second
prayer of absolution, ere he can be admitted to par
take of the holy mysteries. In the Church of
Abyssinia it is said to be customary to touch the
penitent with a spray of olive : and the same prac
tice, once common in western Christendom, still
prevails in some of the larger churches at Rome.

When an apostate or notorious evil-liver is re
ceived again into the communion of the Church, the
priest pronounces the benediction in the name of the
Trinity over a vessel full of water, and pours in chrism
thrice in the form of a cross. Lections are then read
from the scriptures : the priest pronounces the prayer
of absolution over the penitent, blesses the water
again, and makes over it the sign of the cross. The
penitent is now unclothed, and sprinkled thrice by

3OO Ancient Coptic Chiirches. CH. vn.

the priest with the words c I wash thee, in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost.' When the penitent has resumed his clothes,
the priest recites other prayers and the form of abso
lution, dismissing him with the words ' Thou art
healed : go thy way, and sin no more1.'

Confession and absolution are specially necessary
at the point of death.

1 See Vansleb, Histoire, p. 190. The account seems to contain
some needless repetition.

CHAPTER VIII.
The Seven Sacraments (continued}.

Orders. — Matrimony. — Anointing of the Sick.

ORDERS *.

ECOGNITION is given at present to the
following orders in the hierarchy of the
Coptic Church : — patriarch, metropolitan,
bishop, chief priest or kummus, priest,
archdeacon, deacon, reader 2. The sub-
deacon also is a distinct order, and his position is
clearly defined as inferior to the deacon ; but his
rank is not distinguished by a special name in
common parlance. To these orders that of monk 3
is to be added : and the rubrics mention also singer,
and doorkeeper or sacristan, as officials of the
church, though these do not receive ordination at
the hands of the bishop 4.

1 Arabic

2 Arabic d^kJI or

-iJI y^/^UjUl, and

3 Arabic ^Al^l.

4 In a fourth-century MS. the orders given are patriarch, bishop,
priest, deacon, subdeacon, reader, monk ; which occur in the com
memoration at the mass : see Fragmentum Evangelii S. Johannis
by A. Georgius, pp. 308-9 (Rome, 1789, 41.0.). Precisely the same
list is mentioned by Joseph, deacon of Abu Makar, early in the
eleventh century : see Quatremere, Recherches Critiques et His-
toriques sur la Langue et la LitteVature de 1'Egypte, p. 248.

302 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.

The Patriarch.

The full style and title of the patriarch is * The
most holy Pope and Patriarch of the Great City of
Alexandria and of all the Land of Egypt, of *
Jerusalem the Holy City, of Nubia, Abyssinia,
Pentapolis, and all the Preaching of St. Mark/
Renaudot gives the title differently, adding ' et
Fostati Babylonis,' which obviously can only date
from Mohammedan times. The name ' pope ' or
' baba or papa ' has given rise to much controversy,
but may probably be derived from the Coptic ni
<LH£, or ni £.&&£.. Renaudot of course assumes
that the title came from Rome to Alexandria l :
but Al Makrizi says that the bishop being called
al db, or father, the patriarch was called by pre
eminence * father of fathers ' or al baba 2, and that
the title was borrowed by Rome, having been in
use at Alexandria since the time of the first
patriarch : and the account given by Eutychius
is substantially the same. The Copts however
acknowledge three other ecumenical patriarchs,—
those of Rome, of Ephesus, whose seat is now
changed to Constantinople, and of Antioch. The
pope of Rome would preside in an ecumenical
council : the patriarch of Alexandria bears the title
of ' Judge of the World,' and has authority to deter
mine the date of Easter ; the patriarch of Antioch
is ' Judge between the Patriarchs,' and would have
the privilege of consecrating the holy chrism, if all
the patriarchs happened to meet together for the

1 Lit. Or., vol. i. p. 349.

2 See Malan's History of the Copts, pp. 27 n. and 28 n.

CH. viii.j The Seven Sacraments. 303

Maundy Thursday service. Besides the foregoing,
the Copts recognise three honorary patriarchs, those
of Jerusalem, Bagdad, and Abyssinia. In an as
sembly of patriarchs he of Jerusalem would carry
the cross : Bagdad preserves the faith, and is judge
in any difference between the religions of the East 1.

Formerly, of course, the seat of the patriarchate
was at Alexandria : but after the Mohammedan
sovereigns had fixed their capital at Cairo, the
chair was transferred thither for reasons of practical
convenience. Al Mu'allakah is, strictly speaking, the
cathedral church of the two Cairos : and the resi
dence of the patriarch was established there first
after the removal. But as Abu Sargah and even
Abu-'s-Sifain seem to have contended at various
times for the cathedral supremacy, so also the
residence of the patriarch seems to have varied.
In the last century it was fixed in the Harat-ar-
Rum : but after the French invasion the then
patriarch built the present cathedral in the Azbikiah
quarter of Cairo, and the adjoining dwelling which
still serves as the ' palace/

Concerning the election of the patriarch in the
earliest days of the Church, the twelve presbyters
ordained by St. Mark, and the thorny statement of
Eutychius, there has been enough of controversy 2.
Suffice it here to remark that all historical evidence
establishes the election by means of a council com
prising the chief among the clergy and the chief
among the laity. The patriarch was chosen by a
synod of bishops, and their choice was ratified by

1 Vansleb, Histoire, pp. 9-10.

2 See Renaudot, Lit. Or., torn. i. p. 360 seq. : Neale, Alexandria,
vol. i. p. 9 seq.

304 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vm.

the people : or the people might put forward a can
didate, and the bishops confirm the election. Before
the year 700 A. D. the election always took place at
Alexandria : then, when the seat of the patriarchate
was removed to Cairo, the election was generally
held at Cairo until about 1000: next came a period
during which the honour was taken in turn by the
rival cities : and finally Cairo made good an absolute
claim to preeminence. Yet even when Cairo was
recognised as the place of election, the ceremony of
enthronement was always held at Alexandria, and
was followed by a formal proclamation at Dair
Macarius in the desert. Indeed on rare occasions
the patriarch was elected at that monastery.

Immediately after the death of the pontiff, letters
notifying his decease are sent from Alexandria to
all bishops, monasteries, and chief laymen, summon
ing an assembly to meet together. The first care
of the council is to appoint the senior bishop as
president, to obtain leave from the temporal sovereign
for the election, and to prepare themselves by solemn
prayers and fasts and vigils. When the assembly
was held at Alexandria, the chief priest of the church
of St. Mark had the right of nomination : and though
in Cairo the right of proposal is said to have rested
with the Cairenes, some more or less phantasmal
prerogative seems always to have accompanied the
representatives of Alexandria. Often the nominee
was received with acclamation by all parties, more
particularly if he had been designated by the will or
word of the late patriarch. But in case of disagree
ment decision was sometimes very difficult ; until,
as the story goes, the Mohammedan vizier in the
eleventh century recommended the Copts to follow

CH. viii.] TJie Seven Sacraments. 305

the Nestorian custom1. From the year 884 A.D.
the Nestorians in electing a new patriarch chose
first of all one hundred candidates, who were reduced
through a process of elimination by voting to fifty,
twenty-five, ten, and three. The three names were
written on separate slips of paper, and placed together
with the name of Christ on the altar : and after cele
bration an innocent child drew one from among them.
If the name of Christ was drawn, all three candidates
were rejected as unworthy ; and the whole process
was repeated, until the matter was settled. This
method, first adopted in Egypt for the election of
Sanutius, the LXV patriarch, was afterwards used
occasionally in doubtful cases. A similar method
was even used for the election of a bishop, when
Macarius LXIX refused to nominate to the vacant see
of Masr. In the Coptic practice, however, the names
were placed under the altar, not upon it. When the
candidate was thus chosen, whether by acclamation
or lot, the senior bishop solemnly proclaimed his
name in the church, and the assembly shouted «£ioy,
«£ioy.

It was required of a patriarch that he should be
of free birth, the son of a 'crowned' mother, i.e. by
a first husband : for a widow is not crowned if she
remarries. He must moreover be sound in body,
unmarried, not less than fifty years of age, and
never stained by bloodshed : he must be a learned
person, of blameless life and pure doctrine, a dweller
in the desert, and no bishop. The last limitation
was enforced with such unvarying rigour, that from
the time of St. Mark to the days of Cyril LXXV in

1 This story is perhaps open to question, as John XLVIII is said
to have been chosen in the same manner.

VOL. II. X

306 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vm.

1235 A.D. no single instance occurs of a pontiff
raised from the episcopate. But the requirement of
monastic life is not justified by the most ancient
canons or traditions of the Church. In 609 A.D.
Andronicus was elected, being a deacon of Alexan
dria : and amongst others who were not monks
may be mentioned Agathon about 663 A. D., and his
successors John and Isaac : John XLVIII in 775 ;
Ephraim LXII in 977; Zacharias in 1002; Gabriel in
1131, deacon of Abu-'s-Sifain ; and Markus in 1163.
Now however the requirement is essential, though
obviously prejudicial to the welfare of the people.
For how can a mere recluse, who has lived far
apart from the thought and movements of his time,
who has had no practice in dealing with men, and is
often as ignorant of letters as of life, — how can such
a man hope to know and rule the spirit of the Church,
or with helpless hand to guide the vessel in these
times of storm and peril ?

If the new pontiff was present at the assembly, he
was placed in the midst and his election confirmed :
but if, as more often happened, he was in the desert,
a deputation of bishops and laymen was sent to bring
him from the monastery, whence, according to a
curious custom, he was brought in chains. This
custom is said to date from the latter part of the
second century. For the story is that when Julian
xi was dying, he had a vision of a man bringing
grapes to him : and in the morning there came an
ignorant rustic, saying that he had found a very fine
bunch of early grapes in his vineyard1, and had
brought them as an offering to the patriarch. When

1 The legend is interesting as bearing witness to the cultivation
of the vine in Egypt at that epoch.

CH. viii.] The Seven Sacraments. 307

Julian saw him, he exclaimed, ' This is the man whom
the angel of the Lord hath shewn unto me/ So
the countryman was seized, and protesting violently
his unfitness for the office, he was placed in fetters,
and so ordained. In the ninth century we read
that Joseph LII on his election refused to quit the
monastery, and was dragged away in chains. Sanu-
tius LV, being chosen against his will, was taken in
chains to Alexandria for his enthronement ; and the
same thing is recorded of Ephraim LXII. Indeed it
is stated that the practice of fleeing into the wilder
ness and being brought back in irons formed a
regular part of the ceremony of installation. Vansleb
puts the matter differently 1 : he remarks that the
office was so disliked, that when the day of election
drew near, any one who thought himself likely to be
chosen forthwith went into hiding; and the council
got janissaries from the Muslim ruler to hunt down
the fugitives, and to bring them in fetters to Cairo !
No doubt there were times when the burdens and
dangers of the office were enough to alarm the
strongest spirits ; though at other times, in the
eleventh century for instance, the primacy was the
object of a violent competition, in which no method
was too unscrupulous. No doubt too the fear of
election sprang in many cases from a real sense of
unworthiness, or from that counterfeit form of the
same virtue which is characteristic of the Egyptians,
—the dread of responsibility.

After the decision had been made, and the new
patriarch elected, an inquisition was often held into
his life and character, to ascertain that he fulfilled
the requirements of the canons. Sometimes also he

1 Histoire, pp. 12, 13.
X 2

308 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vm.

was compelled to sign a solemn bond and covenant
engaging- to perform certain acts on his accession.
Thus Michael LXVIII promised, among other things,
to pay the annual tribute to Alexandria ; to eschew
and to anathematise the practice of simony; and to
restore the churches of Al Mu'allakah and Al Adra
Harat-ar Rum to their bishops ; for these churches
had been usurped by Christodulus. But no sooner
was Michael seated on the throne than he tore up
the deed, laughing in the face of Sanutius, bishop of
Masr, who demanded his church, flatly denying his
covenant, and threatening to excommunicate any
witness who dared come forward against him : and,
finally, he excommunicated Sanutius for celebrating
on the same day at Abu Sargah and Al Mu'allakah.
If the chosen candidate had attained no higher
order than monkhood, he passed through all the
other necessary orders on successive days before
the day of consecration, which must be a Sunday.
He was made deacon on the Thursday, priest on
Friday, and kummus or chief priest on Saturday:
but he was never made subdeacon, and never con
secrated bishop. If, on the other hand, before election
he were deacon or priest, but had never become a
monk, it was essential for him to be ordained monk
before receiving the higher orders. For this purpose
he was invested with the whole angelic raiment, —
the robe, the hood, the leathern girdle, and the
hermit's cloak. As perpetual celibacy and a life of
special holiness were required of the patriarch, so
doubtless the requirement of monk's orders, signify
ing death to the world, was in accordance with the
most primitive tradition. But it is one thing to dress
the new pontiff in the angelic habit as a symbolical

CH. viii.] The Seven Sacraments. 309

act of ritual, and quite another thing to make anterior
monkhood an essential of election. The latter is a
vulgar act of realism, and a perversion of ancient
custom.

On the day of consecration the patriarch elect is
brought in chains to the church, — properly to the
church of St. Mark in Alexandria, having passed
the preceding night in vigil by the tomb of the evan
gelist. But in later times, when the body of St.
Mark had been stolen and the church destroyed, the
patriarch seems to have kept the vigil by the side of
his predecessor, from whose neck he took the patri
archal pall. The ordinary matins service is sung,
and is followed by a solemn mass, in which the
senior bishop pontificates. After the reading of the
lessons the chains are loosed ; and when the passage
from the Acts is finished, a procession is formed to
the altar. First come deacons bearing uplifted
crosses, burning tapers, and flabella : then a priest
swinging a thurible, and behind him another priest
bearing the silver or golden gospel : next the arch
deacon : the senior bishop followed by the other
prelates walking two and two : the patriarch elect,
vested in dalmatic and amice, and moving with
bowed head between two priests : and lastly all the
other priests in due order. Thus they advance with
music and chaunts to the haikal, where all salute the
altar. After the first gospel the senior bishop sits
on the throne, and all the bishops sit on the bench
of the tribune beside him, facing westward : but the
patriarch stands below between the altar and the
throne, and faces eastward, a priest holding him on
either side : and all the priests and deacons sit on
the lower steps below the prelates. Then the senior

3io Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vm.

bishop gives the decree or instrument of election to
a deacon, who takes it to the ambon, and reads it
aloud. All the bishops subscribe their consent : after
which three priests and three deacons of Alexandria,
and either the abbot of Dair Macarius, or the ruler
of Alexandria or Babylon, i.e. Cairo, sign the docu
ment.

Now the bishops come down and stand by the
altar. After various hymns and prayers with incense
the senior bishop lays his right hand in silence on
the head of the patriarch, while the archdeacon
makes a proclamation : again he lays on his hands,
and recites the invocation, while all the bishops
stretch forth both hands, and lift their eyes above.
Then the bishop signs the patriarch with a cross1
upon his head, proclaims him * archbishop in the
holy Church of God of the great city of Alexandria,'
and vests him with the patrashil and chasuble. All
return to their places in the tribune, while the sys-
tatical letter or instrument of ordination is read by
a deacon from the ambon. Very long prayers fol
low, until the bishop proclaims the patriarch, when
all the people shout agios, agios. Then the gospel
is placed four times successively on the patriarch's
head : the chief bishop and all the bishops lay on
their hands : and when the patriarch has received
the pall and cope, crown and staff, he is led up to
the throne, and thrice made to sit upon it. The
bishop next proclaims in Greek his name and title,
while all the bishops doff their crowns. The patriarch

1 The language of the rubric here rather suggests the use of
chrism, but is not clear upon the point : indeed there is no plain
evidence for the practice of anointing at ordination in the Church
of Egypt.

CH. viii.] The Seven Sacraments. 311

sits on the throne, holding the book of the gospel,
and bishops, clergy, and laymen all salute him. Then
the patriarch proceeds to celebrate the korban. He
reads the gospel himself, and at the words * I am the
good shepherd' all the people cry again «£ioy, «£toy :
at the end of the service he gives the peace, and
retires in procession to the sacristy, where his litur
gical vestments are put off, and he is apparelled in
a dark cope. So returning to the throne he gives
the benediction, and passes from the church to the
patriarchal palace, or ' cell,' as it is called in signi
ficant contrast1. He rides on his own mule in a
great procession, all the clergy going before him,
and the lay folk following after. At the head of
the procession three crosses are carried, and the
picture of St. Mark and his banner. In olden times
at Alexandria the procession made a station in the
midst of the city, where prayers were recited ; and
thence with renewed chaunting they moved on to
the patriarch's dwelling. There all the clergy and
notables of the people came to pay homage ; and
a three days' festival was celebrated, first in the
church of the Gospel, next in that of St. Michael,
and finally in that of St. Mark. At the last service,
when mass was ended, it was customary for the
patriarch, sitting on the throne, to hold the head of
St. Mark instead of the gospel, and to place a new
veil or covering upon it.

That venerable relic has long since disappeared.

1 The ceremonies of installation are given rather differently by
Vansleb (Histoire, pp. 162-9), wno mentions a large cross of iron
as laid on the altar under the paten, and taken by the patriarch
instead of the crozier, when he assumes his pontifical robes. But
interesting as the fact would be, I can find no other evidence for it.

312 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vm.

The story is that early in the seventh century an
Arab crew broke into the church and carried off the
coffer in which it was preserved, thinking it held some
great treasure. But the vessel was unable to leave
the port ; and 'Amr, sending to know the reason,
discovered that they had taken the head. When it
was brought again to land, the ship glided out of
harbour. Then 'Amr wrote to Benjamin the patriarch,
who had fled to Upper Egypt, recounting what had
happened, recalled him, and gave him 10,000 dinars
to build a church in honour of the event ; and that
church is called Al Mu'allakah \

At the present day the patriarch lives in a simple
manner, having the income of an average country
living in England. A lay council has been created
to assist him in the management of the church
revenues ; indeed there is some likelihood of all the
endowments, ecclesiastical and monastic, being placed
in commission. Great reverence is shown to the office
of the patriarch, however unworthy the person of him
who occupies the chair. It is still customary to 'wor
ship' before him, i.e. to fall prostrate on the ground,
laying the forehead in the dust, and then to kiss the
pontiff's hand.

Metropolitan and Bishop.

There are four metropolitans, or archbishops,
under the jurisdiction of the Coptic patriarch, —

1 So Vansleb, Histoire, p. 169 : but there is obviously some mis
take in the name.

A great part of the materials used above is taken from
Renaudot's treatise De Patriarcha Alexandrine.

CH. vin.] The Seven Sacraments. 313

those of Alexandria, Manufiah or Memphis, Jeru
salem, and Abyssinia1. All these receive their
consecration at the hands of the patriarch ; but the
ritual differs in no way from that used at the con
secration of a bishop, except that the service in
the case of a metropolitan ends with a special invo
cation on his behalf.

A bishop may be recommended or elected by
a council of clergy and laity, but his ordination must
be at the hands of the patriarch. It is considered
better, perhaps, that he should never have been mar
ried ; but the only requirement essential is that he
should not have been married a second time. When
a candidate is presented to the patriarch, the latter
makes enquiry of six or seven witnesses, who answer
for the piety and learning of the bishop designate.
Sometimes a deacon is chosen, and the intervening
orders of priest and archpriest are conferred on con
secutive days ; moreover, as in the case of the patri
arch, if the bishop designate is a secular, he must
receive the angelic raiment and the order of monk
hood. Vespers must be kept on Saturday preceding
the Sunday of ordination, and the night passed in
vigil, during which the new bishop repeats the whole
of the psalms and the gospel of St. John. The neigh
bouring bishops, clergy, and laity are summoned to
attend the ordination ceremony.

When the office of matins is over, the patriarch
and bishops enter the church in solemn procession,
and moving to the choir, wait there while the mass

1 Vansleb mentions only three, Damietta, Jerusalem, and Ethi
opia. No doubt the see of Damietta was once metropolitan : but
it is not so at present owing to the diminished importance of that
city. The cathedral too was seized by the Muslims about 1670.

314 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vm.

commences ; then all enter the haikal, and take their
seats upon the tribune. Meanwhile the candidate
stands at the south side of the choir with a burning
taper before him ; and on the altar lie the episcopal
vestments, including a silk epitrachelion, embroidered
with the figures of the twelve apostles. After the
lection from the Acts, the patriarch comes down
from his throne and stands in the doorway of the
sanctuary with the bishops around him ; and when
he has given them the cross to kiss, he sends
three of their number to the bishop designate, who
makes a prostration before them. Then a pro
cession is formed, the three bishops holding the
stole of the candidate, and passes round the church
and into the choir again. The instrument of
election is formally delivered to the patriarch,
who hands it over to a deacon to read from the
ambon.

Turning now eastward to the altar, the pontiff
takes from it the dark-coloured ballin, and places
this on the new bishop instead of the shamlah1,
having thrice signed it with the sign of the cross.
In like manner the epitrachelion is given, and the
wearer signed thrice on the forehead. Another pro
cession now moves down the church ; and at the
western end the new bishop sits or kneels upon the
ground during the singing of a hymn. Then, singing
still, they pass to the door of the haikal ; and the
bishop falls down before the altar, and kisses the

1 This seems to be the meaning of the rubric in Renaudot : but
it is quite impossible to be certain about it. It will be remembered
that the * black hood ' in the painting of Anba Shanudah has three
white crosses upon it.

CH. viii.] The Seven Sacraments. 315

cross at the hand of the patriarch, who signs his
forehead thrice crosswise. The kyrie is sung here,
and the bells are rung.

After prayers and the pax, the senior deacon
cries, 'Lift up your hands, O bishops;' whereupon
the prelates all raise their hands, and lay them on
the shoulders of their new brother, while the patri
arch lays hands upon his head. In the subsequent
prayers the patriarch turns eastward ; but faces west
ward again to sign the cross thrice on the forehead
of the new bishop, and to vest him in full episcopal
apparel. When the bishop is fully arrayed, the patri
arch delivers to him the small cross wherewith to give
the benediction : and after a prayer lifts his hand
over the bishop, crying «£ioy, to which all assembled
answer a£ioy.

The next part of the ceremony takes place in the
choir, all the clergy standing there, while the admo
nition is read to the new bishop ; who, after hearing
it, kisses the threshold of the sanctuary. Thence he
is taken back to the haikal, where he kisses the altar ;
and so he is led up the steps of the tribune, and takes
his seat on the right hand of the patriarch, holding
the book of the gospel. Mass forthwith commences,
and proceeds in the accustomed manner, except that
some special versicles are used at the kiss of peace.
The patriarch communicates himself, confesses the
new bishop, and administers, giving the wafer and
the cup separately into the bishop's hand. Then
the corporal is placed over the sacred elements ; the
bishop retires to the doorway, and the patriarch,
turning westward, places the book of the gospel on
his head, saying the pax. Then the deacon pro
claims the reading of the gospel from the ambon,

316 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vm.

and the patriarch reads a passage from St. John1.
After the words 'Jesus stood in the midst and said
unto them, " Peace be unto you," ' the patriarch holds
out the gospel over the head of the bishop ; again,
at the words ' As my Father hath sent me, even so
send I you/ he does the same thing, crying out
agios. Then he resumes, and at the words ' Receive
ye the Holy Ghost/ he breathes in the form of a
cross upon the face of the bishop, crying again a£toy,
and the cry is taken up by the clergy and the people,
the choir singing and the bells ringing; and lastly,
at the words ' They are retained/ all the people shout,
* A hundred years/ The patriarch and bishop return
to the altar, remove the veil, and administer the
communion to the rest of the clergy and laymen ;
while the choir sing the benediction. At the end
of the service, when the benediction is to be given
for the dismissal of the congregation, the patriarch
robes the bishop in a dark-coloured processional
cope, and invites him to give a separate benison.
All then proceed to the patriarch's dwelling,
and a three days' festival is kept. Here, too, the
patriarch often presents the new bishop with a small
hand-cross and with a crozier ; but that is not a
necessary part of the ceremony of ordination. It
is, however, necessary for the bishop to fast during
the week which follows his consecration2, and during
that time to study diligently the duties of his office ;
and meanwhile the pontiff sends letters commendatory
to his diocese.

The installation of the bishop at his own church

1 C. xx.

2 Vansleb, Histoire, p. 172. Yet the same writer gives three
-weeks as the period of fasting in another passage. See p. 33.

CH. viii.] The Seven Sacraments. 317

must take place on a week-day, and three other
bishops at least must be present to accompany him.
When he arrives at the village or dair nearest his
own town, the people come to meet him in proces
sion, and prostrate themselves before him. Then
the clergy read a chapter from St. Matthew1, and
conduct him with chaunts and music through the
town to the church. The senior bishop says set
prayers before the door, recites Psalm cxvii. and part
of another chapter of St. Matthew2; other prayers
and forty kyries follow, and they enter. Just within
the door the senior bishop reads the prayer of abso
lution over the new prelate ; then come more lessons,
and the procession moves to the haikal, where all
fall down before the altar, and the new bishop takes
the lowest seat on the tribune. After matins, the
bishops put on their liturgical vestments and begin
the mass, the new bishop reading some of the prayers
and censing the altar. They invoke upon him the
gifts of the Holy Spirit, and lead him in procession
round the church. On returning to the haikal they
lay their hands on his shoulders, and then take him
up to the throne, where the senior bishop makes
him sit, thrice replacing him as he tries to rise, and
the choir all cry «£ioy. Thus sitting on the throne
the bishop holds the book of the gospel in his hand,
the prelates and priests kiss him in order, while the
deacons chaunt to music. He descends and reads
the gospel, during which the chief bishop places the
silver book upon his head three times ; then return
ing to the altar he accomplishes the celebration. The
installation, like the consecration, is followed by three

1 C. xxi. 1-7. 2 C. xvi. 13-19.

318 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vm.

days of festival, but the bishop's fasting is now turned
to feasting.

The number of episcopal sees under the jurisdic
tion of the patriarch of Alexandria is at present four
teen ; but in ancient times was far greater. Vansleb
in 1673 transcribed a catalogue of the sees from an
old MS. shown to him by the then bishop of Siut ;
in this there are nearly one hundred given, and that
number falls far short of the total which can be
found recorded in church documents. In his own
time Vansleb mentions fifteen as still existing : —
i. Nakadah, 2. Girgah, 3. Abu Tig, 4. Siut, 5. Man-
falut, 6. Koskam, 7. Malafah and Miniah, 8. Bahna-
sah, 9. Atfiah, 10. Tahta and Ashmunain, 1 1. Faium,
12. Bilbais, 13. Mansurah, 14. Damietta, 15. Manuf,
Bahairah, and the port of Alexandria, which are
united. At present there remain the following : —
I. Gizah, 2. Faium and Bahnasah, 3. Miniah and
Ashmunain, 4. Sanabu and Koskam, 5. Manfalut,
6. Siut, 7. Girgah and Akhmim, 8. Abu Tig, 9. Kai-
nah, Kuss, and Nakadah, 10. Asnah, 1 1. Al Khartum,
12-14. three dioceses in Abyssinia under the metro
politan.

Kummus.

There are two senses in which the term kummus
is used, or its Coptic equivalent ^/rrojuiettoc, which
is a slightly corrupted form of the Greek ^yoi^ei/oy.
The secular kummus, or archpriest, has a position
somewhat corresponding to that of an English rector ;
he is the chief priest in charge of a church, to which
there may be other priests as well as deacons attached.
The name applies even to the superior of the cathe
dral. In its other meaning it signifies the head or

CH. viii.] The Seven Sacraments. 319

abbot of a monastery. It is very difficult to decide
whether any particular church was originally secular
or religious : and therefore it is not surprising to find
that the superior in both cases is called by the same
name ; though in all probability the term hegumenos
was once distinctly monastic.

When a priest is to be ordained kummus, he is
brought to the church, and set in the choir arrayed
in his sacerdotal vestments. Two archpriests lead
him between them in procession round the church,
and bring him to the door of the sanctuary, where
the bishop is standing. All bow before the altar,
and the bishop says the prayer of incense ; then
after other prayers lays his hand upon the priest's
head. Moreover, the bishop signs his head thrice
with the sign of the cross ; the priest kisses the
altar ; and the korban is celebrated. After commu
nion a form of exhortation is read, admonishing the
new kummus of his spiritual duties.

Priest.

For the ordination of a priest the canonical age
is thirty-three years. Testimony is required from
the clergy that he be of good character and under
standing, lawfully married, and a deacon in holy
orders. If not already a deacon, he must be made
reader and deacon on successive days previous to
the day of ordination. When the day has come,
he must be vested as deacon, wearing a dalmatic,
and the orarion over his left shoulder, and be
brought to the choir, — the bishop being within the
haikal accompanied by a priest. The candidate is
led in procession round the church ; then bows low

32O Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.

before the altar, while the bishop, facing eastward,
proceeds with the prayer of morning incense. At
the prescribed moment the bishop turns to the west,
and lays his hand on the candidate's head, repeat
ing an orison. Resuming the eastward position he
continues praying ; then turns westward again to
sign the candidate's forehead with a cross. The
proclamation of the candidate as priest follows,
whereupon the bishop makes three more crosses
on his forehead, and vests him in sacerdotal apparel.
After the thanksgiving a priest delivers the exhor
tation ; there is also a special admonition concerning
the duty of confessing the people and of exercising
great discretion in dealing with penitents. The new
priest kisses the book containing the exhortation,
and the threshold of the haikal, and the hand of
the bishop. Then he receives the communion, and
the bishop's hands are thrice laid upon his head,
and all the people shout #£ioy with the name of the
priest and his cure. According to Vansleb the
bishop also breathes upon his face, saying, ' Receive
thou the Holy Ghost;' but the rubrics do not seem
to mention insufflation.

Ordination is followed by a fast of forty days, the
fast lasting from sunset till three o'clock in the fol
lowing afternoon.

Deacon.

For the ordination of the deacon the ceremonial
is almost the same as that appointed for ordination
of the priest : except that the deacon wears no stole
when he is presented to the bishop, and that the
process of investiture with the insignia of the order

CH. viii.] The Seven Sacraments. 321

consists in the placing of the orarion upon the left
shoulder. Vansleb records that the eucharistic spoon
is likewise delivered to the deacon as a symbol of
his office, and held all through the mass ; and that
at the end of the service the bishop breathes upon
his face. The a^oy is called thrice by the clergy.

When an archdeacon is ordained, there is a special
additional form of prayer, and a particular arrange
ment of the orarion, as described in the account given
above of the ecclesiastical vestments ; but otherwise
the service and ritual do not differ from those of the
inferior order.

The subdeacon stands at the door of the haikal
without dalmatic or other ornament. The bishop
does not ordain him by imposition of hands : but
after the prayer of morning incense places one hand
on each temple, so that the thumbs meet on the
forehead, and so recites an orison. The sign of
the cross is also made on the subdeacon' s forehead
once, and subsequently thrice, as in the case of the
higher orders ; and the orarion is placed over his
left shoulder. He kisses the altar, and receives the
eucharist ; but the bishop at no time lays hand upon
his head.

As the deacon holds the spoon, so the subdeacon
holds a lighted candle in his hand all through the
celebration of the korban.

Reader.

The candidate for the office of reader in the
Church stands before the haikal without dalmatic,
with head uncovered and bowed low. He is brought,
as usual, in procession, and presented to the bishop,
who stands in the doorway. The bishop asks, * Do

VOL. II. Y

322 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vm.

ye bear witness that this person is in very truth
worthy of the order?' and the answer is, 'Of a
truth, our father, he is worthy.' Then the bishop,
with a pair of scissors, cuts a large cross through
the hair of the candidate, and a smaller cross in
the angles between the branches. After a prayer
westward, and another towards the altar, the bishop,
again, facing to the west, holds the temples of the
candidate during another orison ; then he delivers
the book of the gospel, and administers the eucha-
rist ; but the ordination is accomplished without the
imposition of hands.

There is no other form of tonsure than that just
mentioned recognised by the Coptic canons or prac
tised by any order. Something of the same kind is
done at the ordination of the subdeacon in Abys
sinia1, according to Alvarez; and the subdeacon is
made to touclv the keys of the church, a veil is
placed upon his head, and a cruse of water is de
livered as his symbol of office.

No reader, nor subdeacon, nor singer may enter
the sanctuary, though they receive the eucharist
before the laymen.

The singer is signed with the sign of the cross,
and receives a benediction from the bishop, of course
without imposition of hands.

Monk.

Three years of noviciate are required before the
order of monkhood is conferred. Then the abbot,
standing at the door of the haikal, bids the novice
lie prostrate on the ground, and reads over him

1 Denzinger, Rit. Or., torn. ii. p. 6 note.

CH. viii.] The Seven Sacraments. 323

the burial service in token of his death to the
world. The crosswise tonsure is made upon the
monk's head, and the abbot vests him with tunic,
hood, and girdle, accompanying each investiture
with the appointed orisons. Then, unless the monk
demand the askim or angelic habit, the abbot pro
nounces absolution and gives his benediction. For
the angelic habit a separate service is appointed,
and the monk receives a kind of cloak resembling
a cope ; the cross is laid upon his head, and a
special exhortation is read explaining the arduous
duties involved in the assumption of this garb of
asceticism.

MATRIMONY1.

Marriage is not allowed to be celebrated during
the season of Lent ; but the most common time now
is just before the fast commences. The sacrament
of matrimony in the Coptic Church is surrounded
with much solemnity, and retains some traces of
ancient and even pre-Christian custom which have
disappeared from western ritual.

It is the duty of the priest to ascertain that both
parties to the marriage are acting of free will and
not of compulsion. On the appointed day the bride
groom and the bride are separately escorted in pro
cession with music through the streets to the church.
When the bridegroom reaches the door, the deacons
bearing tapers and bells and the priests meet him
there, singing ' Blessed is he that cometh in the

1 Arabic s
Y 2

324 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vm.

name of the Lord.' Other chaunts follow, and the
bridegroom is then conducted to the choir. Similarly
the bride is welcomed with the ' Ave, Maria' at the
door, and led to her place in the division or gallery
for women. All the clergy are dressed in white :
and if the patriarch perform the office of benediction,
the clergy escort him to the church in procession.
The raiment destined for the bridal, a golden cross,
a golden ring, a girdle, and incense, are placed on a
tray in the choir : and sometimes also a new silken
cope, which it is customary for the bridegroom to
present to the patriarch, who puts on the gift for the
service. The service comes just after matins.

The penitential psalms are first recited, and incense
is burned : then the patriarch or celebrant is solemnly
censed by the other clergy. Kyries, alleluias, and
psalms are next sung and followed by the epistle :
then the choir is censed, and the gospel read in
Coptic and Arabic with the customary ceremonies.
Several orisons from the liturgy are now said ending
with the prayer of absolution to the Son : after which
the tray of vestments is unveiled, and the patriarch
blesses each one singly. In these the bridegroom
is arrayed, being clothed first in a white silken tunic
reaching to the feet, then with the girdle about his
waist, and with a white covering on his head : more
over the patriarch places the ring on the ring-finger
of the bridegroom's right hand, and pronounces over
him his benediction.

The celebrant now moves down from the choir
leading the man to the place where the woman is
waiting, and bids him give to her the ring, to which
also a crown is fastened. And when the woman puts
forth her hand to take them, she thereby signifies

CH. viii.] The Seven Sacraments. 325

her willingness to become his wife, and the cele
brant inclines their heads together. Thence the
man and woman go to the doorway of the choir, and
the bride stands at the bridegroom's right hand.
Thus standing they are covered by the priest with
a single veil of white silk or fine linen, symbolical of
pure and holy union. Appropriate prayers are re
cited, and hymns are sung, accompanied by the
burning of incense, and divided by a lection from the
gospel. When they are finished, the priest or
patriarch begins the benediction of the bride and
bridegroom ; and whenever he mentions their names,
he signs them with the sign of the cross1. Litur
gical prayers continue with music ; and after the pax
the priest blesses a vessel of oil, and anoints both
bride and bridegroom on the forehead and on the
wrist : he blesses also the crowns, and after an
orison places them on their heads, and cries in a
loud voice, ' With glory and honour the Father has
crowned them, the Son blesses them, the Holy
Ghost crowns them, comes down upon them, and
perfects them ' : and other forms of blessing follow,
varying with the customs of the several churches.

Then the man and woman stand with their arms
crossed before them, and the golden cross is laid
upon their heads, while the priest pronounces over
them the absolution. This is followed by an exhor
tation, at the end of which the priest delivers the
bride to the bridegroom, joining their hands, and gives
another benediction. During some versicles which

1 In the previous benediction of the bridegroom, according to
Vansleb, the priest stands behind him facing eastward, and touches
the back of his head with the silver or golden cross. See, however,
Denzinger, Rit. Or., torn. ii. p. 364 seq.

326 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vm.

follow, a procession is formed, and moves round the
church with lights burning and music playing.
When they have returned, the canon of the mass
begins. Man and wife partake of the holy eucharist,
and are then escorted in procession to the doors of
the church, and so through the streets homewards.

On the eighth day after marriage a solemn service
is held for the removal of the crown. Certain
prayers and lections are recited in due order ; and
when they are finished, the priest takes off the
crown from the head of the bride and bridegroom,
and dismisses them with his benediction.

It will be seen, then, that the Coptic marriage
service corresponds in its main features, particularly
in the coronation and removal of the crown, with
the same service in the Greek, as given by Goar 1.
It corresponds also with the Latin rite, as recorded
in the ninth century by pope Nicholas, who brings out
four points as essential — the offerings to the church,
the benediction, the veiling, and the crowning 2.

ANOINTING OF THE SICK.

In the Arabic names for this sacrament, which
signify 'oil of the lamp ' or ' oil of the sick V there is

1 Euchol., pp. 396, 400.

2 For other ceremonies connected with the Coptic marriage, see
Lane's Modern Egyptians, vol. ii. p. 290 seq. Lane's account of
the Copts is fairly accurate on the whole, though warped by that
morbid prejudice which disfigures most English writings about
them. See, for example, the thoroughly unjust article on the
Copts in the new Encyclopaedia Britannica.

CH. viii.] The Seven Sacraments. 327

nothing to denote that it is to be administered solely
as the last rite of the Church to those who are
departing. So far therefore the Coptic differs from
the Romish practice.

In the Pontifical of Gabriel the rites of the sacra
ment of unction are described as follows. A lamp
with seven branches l is filled with purest olive oil
of Palestine, and placed on a stand before a picture
of the blessed Virgin: near it also are set a cross
and the silver book of the gospel. Seven priests,
or any other convenient number, assemble in the
church. The service commences with a thanks
giving, followed by burning of incense, a portion of
an epistle, and some appropriate orisons. Then the
chief priest lights one of the wicks, making the sign
of the cross over the oil, while his brethren sing
psalms. Other prayers follow ; and at a time
appointed the second priest likewise makes the
sign of the cross over the oil, and kindles the second
wick : and so on with intervals of prayer and chaunt
until the whole seven wicks are kindled in order.

When all the prayers and lessons belonging to the
lighting of the lamp are thus accomplished, the sick
person, if he be in such a condition that he is able to
take part in the service, advances to the door of the
haikal, facing to the east. There the chief priest
holds the silver gospel and the cross high above his
head, and then lays his hands upon the sick man's
temples : but while the chief priest alone recites the
orisons, all the priests severally give their benedic
tion, recite the Lord's prayer, and open the gospel,
reading the passage on which they chance to open.

1 See the illustration of such a lamp on p. 76 supra.

328 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vm.

Moreover the creed and other prayers are uttered :
the cross is again uplifted over the sick man : and a
procession is formed and passes round the church,
bearing the seven-wicked lamp and lighted tapers,
while they sing, praying to God that the sick man
may be healed through the intercession of saints
and martyrs. At the end of the procession the sick
man returns to the choir, and standing at the door
of the haikal, as before, is anointed with the oil. In
case the sick person is too ill to endure the long and
fatiguing ceremony of the service in the church, a
substitute is put in his place, but the service is not
performed outside the consecrated building, and is
intended as an intercession for the recovery of the
sick, and not as the Church's final benediction of a
soul passing to eternity.

The Armenian rite for the anointing of the sick
closely resembles the Coptic in its use of a seven-
wicked lamp : but differs in allowing the service to
be held at the bedside, in cases where the sick
person is unable to go to the church.

This practice of anointing the sick with oil from a
church lamp is extremely ancient. St. Chrysostom
clearly speaks of persons who had been anointed in
faith with oil from such a lamp, and had been cured
of divers diseases. Oil of the lamp is also mentioned
as used for unction of the sick in the life of Nilus
the younger J : and monks and others are said to
have been healed of evil spirits in this manner, the
anointing being given at the hands of a priest. The
same custom and the same expression are also found
in Greek ritual, which contains a prayer for the

1 Vita, viii. 58, 59: Boll. Sept. 26, quoted in Diet. Christ.
Antiq. q. v.

CH. viii.] The Seven Sacraments. 329

anointing of the sick with oil of the lamp l. Seven
priests also are required, as in the Coptic ritual ;
and the oil is kept burning in a seven-wicked lamp
before the principal icon of our Lord in the church :
but wine is used in this lamp in lieu of water2.

1 Euchol., p. 842. 2 Id., p. 436.

CHAPTER IX.

Various Rites and Ceremonies of the
Church.

The Holy Oils.— Consecration of a Church and Altar.— Consecration
of a Baptistery. — Festival of Epiphany. — Palm Sunday and Holy
Week. — Seasons of Fasting.

THE HOLY OILS.

ORMAL usage and canon law in the West
alike recognise three distinct kinds of oil
as employed in the service of the Church,
called chrism, oil of the catechumens, oil
of the sick. There are many vestiges in Coptic
rubrics showing that three kinds of oil have been
used from time immemorial in the ritual of Egypt :
and there still exists at the church of Anba Shanudah
in Old Cairo a chrismatory containing three crewets,
one for each of the several sorts. But the cor
respondence is rather in practice than in theory :
for it is doubtful whether the Church of Alexandria
ever formally recognised more than two kinds of oil,
each having a specific and separate ritual name and
purpose. In the early fourth-century fragment of a
Coptic MS., published by Georgius, two kinds are
mentioned, and called <LVioit JU/rport and ^vioit
eX<Liort ; and so perpetually we find chrism and

Various Ceremonies. 331

olive oil distinguished. The latter was also called
in Greek ayaXXiao-ecoy e'Xafo*/, whence, by a curious
corruption, the term fait/aeon1 was formed in Coptic,
and constantly stands in the rubrics and prayers
for the secondary oil. There is no difficulty what
ever in understanding the use of three oils in
practice and the recognition of two in theory by the
Egyptians : for while the galilaeon answers generally
to the ' oleum catechumenorum ' of the Latins, and
the oil of the lamp answers to the 'oleum infir-
morum/ yet the material of these two oils, namely
the galilaeon and the oil of the lamp, is precisely the
same in both cases, pure olive oil of Palestine.
They are therefore virtually one and the same oil,
and stand together in contrast to the myron 2 or
chrism, which is an elaborate compound.

The most essential ingredient in the composition
of the holy chrism is balsam grown in the garden
by the Virgin's well at Matarlah, the ancient Hejio-
polis. It was here, according to the legend, that the
Holy Family rested on their flight into Egypt : and
it is related that they hid in the hollow of a tree,
across which a spider wove his web, and so deceived
the pursuers. A mediaeval Arab writer thus cites
a mention of the balsam of Matariah : * in vicinia
Fostatae stint ab austro vicus Menf et a septentrione
urbs nominata Ainschemes . . . dicunturque ambae
horti fuisse Pharaonis, cui Deus maledicat. In
Ainschemes provenit balsami arbor, quod nullibi
terrarum nisi hie nascitur V As a matter of fact the

1 An intermediate form is also found,

2 The term is in use at present in the Arabic form

3 See Descriptio ^Egypti, translated from the Arabic by J. D.
Michaelis, Gottingen, 1776, p. 127.

332 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. ix.

balsam-tree is found also in Arabia, and though the
last tree in Egypt is said to have perished in the
great inundation of 1615, it may very well have
been restored. Tradition, however, insists that the
balsam grew only in the garden at Matariah, and
required to be watered from the well in which the
infant Christ was washed. There is a story that in
the twelfth century a certain Jew, who had become
vizier to the sultan 'Aziz, son of Saladin, flatly denied
this truth ; and, to prove his contention, had another
well dug close to the Virgin's fountain. For a year
the balsam trees were watered only from the new
well ; and the result was that they yielded not one
drop of balsam. Next year the vizier caused them
to be watered in equal quantities from both wells :
and they produced then half the usual amount of
balm. The third year, when the water of the
Virgin's well alone was used, the yield of balm
recovered, and attained its full measure1.

Several boilings are required for the myron, and
each is a process precisely ordered. The amount of
every drug used is defined by rigid prescription, and
portioned by weight and measure. At the first
boiling the various herbs and spices, which include
lilies and cassia, are put in a pot, and covered with
fresh water, and so left to steep for a day. Next
morning eight pounds of pure oil, which has never
been contained in any vessel of leather, is poured
upon the spices, and made to boil all day over a
moderate fire, the fuel for which is olive wood or
decayed church pictures2. While the mixture is

1 See also Evangelia Apocrypha, ed.Tischendorff, 2nd edit. p. 193.
(Evang. Infant. Arab. c. xxiv.)

2 This custom recorded by Vansleb (Histoire, p. 91), still con-

CH. ix.] Various Ceremonies. 333

boiling the whole of the Psalms are recited. From
time to time the spices are stirred with a wand of
olive ; and as the water fails, it is replenished. In
the evening the pot is taken off the fire, and the oil
left to cool all night till the following morning, when
it is strained through linen.

Then red roses of Persia, white sandal-wood, and
other aromatics are placed in a cauldron of fresh
water and left for six hours ; when the oil of yester
day is placed with them, and the whole is boiled for
four hours over a slow fire, and strained again.

For the third boiling other spices are chosen,
steeped, boiled with the oil resulting from the day
preceding, and strained as before. Next day white
storax, saffron, aloe-wood, and more red roses are
used with other things, and boiled as before until all
the water has evaporated ; when the remaining
mixture is clarified by straining. This on the fifth
day is added to a decoction of yellow amber and
storax or balsam, and boiled over a slow fire made
of oak charcoal, until the amber and the storax are
dissolved. Then the chrism is passed through a
linen strainer into a clean vessel, and is stirred
daily for seven days, when it is ready for conse
cration l.

According to ancient custom the hallowing of the
myron should always, if possible, take place at the
church of St. Macarius in the western desert.
Originally it was done in the church of St. Mark

tinues : it accounts for the disappearance of all really early paint
ings from the churches.

1 The manner of making chrism as described by a Coptic prelate,
in answer to a demand from the Maphrian of Mosul, is given in a
MS, in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris. (XIV. No. 100.)

334 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. ix.

at Alexandria, and when the change took place it
is impossible to say, but probably not later than the
seventh century. There seems too some ambiguity
concerning the day proper for the consecration,—
whether it should be Maundy Thursday, as in the
western rite, or Good Friday. But the Coptic legend
is that the day was changed to Good Friday, and
the place to Dair Macarius, c. 390, by the patriarch
Theophilus, in obedience to the command of an
angel seen in a vision. The same angel taught
Theophilus the right spices to use for the chrism,
and the right manner of its preparation. Theo-
phanius LX is said to have restored the custom of
consecrating on Good Friday, which had been
abolished by his predecessor c. 950 A.D. During
the thirty years which followed, the practice varied
between Thursday and Friday, until Ephraim LXII
by an ordinance settled Thursday as the right day
for ever. Thursday, of course, is the day recognised
by the Church all over the world for the consecration
of the chrism ; and if the Copts ever changed it, they
were doubtless conscious of error. Hence the sup
posed sanction of the change by an angel's voice, as
in the legend. As regards the change of place, it
may very well have followed close upon the Arab
conquest ; for the ceremony required great pomp
and great preparation, and it is no wonder that the
scene was changed from the alarms and persecutions
of the city to the unbroken quiet of the desert
monastery.

When the day has come, the patriarch and a great
number of bishops and clergy and laity assemble at
the church of St. Macarius. The two oils which
await consecration, the myron and the galilaeon, are

CH. ix.] Various Ceremonies. 335

placed in separate vessels on the high altar l. Service
begins with a thanksgiving accompanied by incense,
and a prayer is recited by the patriarch. Then
follow several lessons, during which the pontiff is
seated on his throne, and when they are ended a
procession is formed, which passes round the church.
At the head a processional cross is carried : then
come twelve subdeacons each bearing a lighted
lamp : twelve deacons with silver flabella : twelve
priests with censers of burning incense : the patri
arch walking under a white silken canopy, upheld
by four deacons, and carrying the vessel of holy oil
covered by a white veil : and on either side of the
patriarch and behind him are other ecclesiastics
bearing flabella and crosses. As they move, all
sing, ' Behold the ointment of the Lord ' 2 : and
when they return to the haikal, the patriarch places
the myron again upon the altar 3, and proceeds with
the long but beautiful consecration service. After
the benediction of the oils the korban is immediately
celebrated : and when it is over, the myron and the

1 According to Vansleb the * mystagogia/ which he defines as
the creed of the apostles, is placed between them. The same
writer mentions two ' altars ' of wood specially made, one on each
side of the high altar : but the term is obviously inaccurate, mere
pedestals being required if anything, and no mention being made
even of these in the rubrics. The statement doubtless arises from
a misapprehension : I think it possible that altar-boards may have
been used as stands for the vessels but placed upon the high altar.
See Histoire, p. 231 seq.

2 The Copts say that the chrism represents the balm used at the
entombment.

3 According to Vansleb the myron is placed on one of the wooden
pedestals, and the galilaeon on the other : but see the rubric in
Denzinger, Kit. Or., torn. i. p. 251, where nothing of the kind is
mentioned.

336 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. ix.

galilaeon are both placed in the cavity under the
high altar, where they remain until Tuesday in
Easter week. On that day after mass the patriarch
distributes to the bishops sufficient quantities to last
them for the coming year. It should be noticed
that in the prayers of benediction, where the uses of
the chrism are specified, the anointing of regenera
tion is mentioned, and the anointing of bishops and
priests, and the consecration of altars : but in the
benediction of the galilaeon it is stated that ' priests
and martyrs' have been anointed with it. From
the tenour of the prayers in the latter case, it is
clear that the galilaeon is regarded as possessing a
mystic virtue against idolatry and witchcraft, a
power of defence against the assaults of the devil,
and a power of healing for soul and body. It is
therefore needful in some way to all the faithful :
and accordingly we find that to this day* all folk,
whether cleric or lay, are anointed once a year in
the season of Lent with the galilaeon.

But present practice has departed somewhat from
the primitive tradition. For while the galilaeon
seems almost to have disappeared through a con
fusion with the oil of the sick, which is hallowed
from time to time as required ; the consecration of
chrism has become an extremely rare occurrence.
Not that its worth has been in any way depreciated :
on the contrary it is regarded still as no less neces
sary than sovereignly precious : but for the last two
or three hundred years at least it seems to have
been made in larger quantities, and consequently at
longer intervals. For the ceremony, which should
be annual, now takes place once in every thirty
or forty years. According to Pococke a definite

CH. ix.] Various Ceremonies. 337

interval of thirty years is prescribed ; but this is not
the case. A list of dates, for instance, at which the
consecration was held in the thirteenth century shows
irregular intervals varying from six to fifteen years l.
The myron is now used only at confirmation, and at
the dedication of a new church, altar, picture or
vessel, according to the testimony of the present
patriarch.

There is a close resemblance between Coptic and
Greek usage as regards the myron : for the same
term is used in both languages. The preparation is
as elaborate : for the Greeks use oil, wine, balsam,
myrrh, storax, cassia, cinnamon, marjory, and in all
some thirty-six aromatics 2. Moreover the consecra
tion is attended with much the same ceremonial.
The oil is carried in procession in an alabaster box,
which is covered with a veil ; before it move deacons
with lighted tapers, and on each side of it are seven
deacons carrying fans, which they hold above the
vessel. But the pontiff instead of carrying the holy
oil receives it from the chief priest or bishop at the
door of the sanctuary, and places it on the altar.

In the West the chrism was made merely of oil
and balsam. The three oils were consecrated
together, the chrism being borne in a vessel of gold,
while the oleum sanctum and oleum infirmorum
were held in silver vessels : and the procession
through the church resembled that of the oriental
ritual. Chrism was used for the latter unction at
baptism and for confirmation ; for the consecration
of a church, altar, and bells ; for the consecration of

The MS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale gives the years 1299,
, i320> *33°> I34°> and 1346 A.D.
2 Goar, Euchol., p. 637.

VOL. II. Z

338 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. ix.

bishops, priests, and kings ; and it was placed on the
hands of the deacon, and on crucifixes at their bene
diction. But in the Latin rite the chrism and balsam
were set on the 'altar separately : during the service
the bishop mingled a portion of the oil with the
balsam on the paten, and then replaced it in the
golden vessel. Curiously enough exactly the same
method of mingling the chrism is found in the
Jacobite Syrian ritual, which otherwise tallies rather
with the Coptic, particularly in the details of the
great procession, and in the prominence given to
the use of flabella. The Syrians recognise only two
oils, and call the second the ' oil of anointing ' : it is
used for the first unction at baptism, and for the
healing of the sick.

THE CONSECRATION OF A CHURCH AND ALTAR.

The Coptic order for the consecration of a church
having never been published, it is impossible to give
anything like a complete description of the ceremonies
customary. In giving therefore such points of usage
as can be ascertained, others no less essential will
have to be passed in silence owing to want of in
formation.

The service commences with vespers on the even
ing before a Sunday, and lasts through most of the
night, the act of consecration being reserved for
Sunday morning. A great number of clergy and
bishops assemble with the patriarch in the building ;
but it does not appear whether there is any ceremony
at the western door, such as was usual in our own
country. Seven earthen vessels of water are ranged

CH. ix.] Various Ceremonies. 339

in front of the haikal, and the neck of every vessel is
wreathed with leaves of a plant called 'silk'1. Seven
lamps also are burning before the haikal, and seven
censers of incense between the vessels of water and
the screen. A large portion of the psalter is then
sung, and followed by a long series of lessons ; and
after every lesson a hymn is chaunted. Next the
patriarch censes the building, while the clergy sing
another hymn. Prayer after prayer continues, varied
only with kyries from the people and portions from
all the four gospels. When the moment comes for
the benediction of the water, all kneel down until the
orison is finished.

Then all rising, the clergy form a long procession
headed by the patriarch : the vessels of water are
borne along in this procession, and the clergy, who
all wear their most splendid vestments, carry tapers,
thuribles, flabella, and a magnificent book of the
gospel. They go first into the haikal, where the
patriarch or bishop sprinkles the walls and top of
the altar with water, which he takes from the earthen
vessel in a gourd : then he sprinkles in like manner
the walls of the haikal, particularly the eastern niche,
and also the pillars and dome of the altar-canopy.
From the haikal the procession passes round the
whole church ; and the pontiff sprinkles in the same
way the walls, angles, columns, and, where possible,
the roof, saying at each place, 'The holy consecration
of the house of God/

After the first procession a second is made, in
which the places sprinkled are signed with the silk

1 Apparently white beet. See Vansleb, Histoire, p. 215. It is
questionable whether the plant is not rather used as the instru
ment of aspersion.

Z 2

340 Ancient Coptic Ckitrches. [CH.IX.

leaves in the form of a cross. Finally, there comes
a third procession, in which a vessel of holy chrism
is borne before the pontiff, who signs the myron
with the sign of the cross upon the altar, walls,
columns, and all the places that were touched with
the leaves, and sprinkled with the hallowed water.
The consecration of the church is now accomplished,
and the marks of consecration are sometimes recorded
by the incision of crosses. Thus all the pillars at
Abu Sargah have dedication crosses cut into the
marble : others are seen in Al Mu allakah, Al Adra
Harat-az-Zuailah, and elsewhere : and the crosses
often cut on the architrave joining the columns of the
nave may have the same origin. It seems, however,
an invariable rule that no record was preserved of
chrismal crosses signed upon plastered surfaces.

In the foregoing account no mention is made of a
procession round the outside of the church : and I
have no doubt that such a procession never formed
part of the ceremonial, for the simple reason that
there is scarcely a single church in Egypt which is
so far detached on the outside as to render an ex
terior circuit possible. In our old English ritual the
procession passed round the church outside, as well
as inside, and the bishop made twelve crosses with
chrism upon the walls externally, and twelve in
ternally. On the outside, the places where the
chrism was signed were often marked by an incised
cross in a roundel : and inside, where the chrism
was placed upon a plastered surface, the spot was
marked by a similar design painted. In the British
Museum there is a French miniature * representing a
bishop on a ladder making a cross upon the wall of

1 Add. MSS. 18,143.

CH. ix.j JSarioMs Ceremonies. 341

a church. The Ordo Romanus prescribes twelve
as the total ; but twenty-four was the more usual
number ; and the full number was marked upon any
chapel added to an earlier building. Nine of the
inside crosses remain in Henry VII.'s chapel at
Westminster : outside crosses are tolerably common.
In England the size and shape varies : thus large
and fanciful devices may be seen outside Salisbury
cathedral, and on the church of Ottery St. Mary the
crosses are held by angels. The Coptic form is
generally that given in the woodcut l — a Greek
cross having the upper and lower limbs slightly
elongated and having all the branches hollowed
with sloping sides. The nearest approach to this
form in England is found at Chichester cathedral.

In the Anglo-Saxon ritual as recorded in the
Ecgbert Pontifical, the bishop, pausing at the western
door on his arrival, strikes it with his staff and is then
admitted. A hymn was sung outside, and a litany
within the nave : then the bishop wrote the alphabet
on the floor, and passing to the altar exorcised and
blessed salt and water, blessed also some ashes, and
mixing salt and ashes, made a cross with the mixture
on the water. Wine also was mingled with the
water ; and the bishop, dipping his finger in the
water, first signed the cross on all the corners of the
altar, and then walked seven times round the altar
sprinkling water upon it with a branch of hyssop.
In the same way he walked all round the church,
inside and outside, sprinkling the walls ; and he
sprinkled also one large cross the length and breadth
of the building. Then the hallowed water was
poured away, and the altar dried with a cloth :

1 P. 21 supra, figs, i and 2.

342 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. ix.

incense was offered, and a cross with oil was made
in the centre and at each corner of the slab ; and the
same five places were subsequently anointed with
chrism. Crosses of chrism were made also on the
walls. Special prayers and rites for the consecration
of the altar and all the sacred vessels followed :
relics were enclosed in the altar or in the slab : the
bishop placed two small crossed tapers and a little
heap of incense and kindled them together over the
five spots marked by the crosses of chrism : and the
service was brought to an end by the celebration of
mass 1.

Ceremonies not very different in kind, though
different in order, are prescribed in the Greek office
for the dedication of a church ; but there is no men
tion of writing the alphabet on the floor. Moreover,
when the bishop after knocking has been admitted
to the church, he proceeds at once to set up the
altar-slab on the pillars which form the usual sub
structure. Then the slab is washed with lustral
warm water, which is poured on crosswise, and in
the same way with wine : after which three crosses of
chrism are poured on the slab, and from these the
whole slab is anointed. Three crosses are likewise
marked with chrism on each pillar. The anti-
mensia are consecrated at the same time ; and when
they are removed, the altar is vested in its three
normal coverings. Not till this is accomplished
does the bishop go round the church, marking all

1 The Roman ritual for the dedication of a church continues, for
the most part, unchanged to the present day. A full account, with
illustrations, may be seen in the Pontificale Romanum dementis
vm ac Urbani vni jussu editum, inde vero a Benedicto xiv recog-
nitum. Mechlin, 1873.

CH. ix.] Variotts Ceremonies. 343

the walls and columns. The relics are deposited
after a separate entrance in grand procession to the
church. They are placed in a hole in the foundation
of the altar between the two easternmost pillars : or,
if the altar happen to have a solid substructure, they
are placed in a cavity in the middle of the eastern
face of the altar. Chrism is poured upon the relics,
and the hole is fastened up with lead or with the
cement which is used for the slab, and which consists
of mastich, w7ax, and marble dust. This done, the
mass proceeded.

The Greeks also, like the Copts, use chrism to
anoint the eucharistic vessels and church pictures at
their dedication.

The consecration of the altar follows that of the
church in the Coptic ritual, which therefore so far
agrees rather with western than with Greek custom.
For in Egypt when the pontiff has consecrated the
church, he returns, and standing before the altar
censes it, while psalms and orisons are chaunted.
Then he makes upon it three crosses of chrism,
saying, 4 We anoint with myron this altar, which is
built in honour of St. - — , in the name of the Fa
ther >&, and of the Son >k, and of the Holy Ghost >£.'
After many more prayers he prostrates himself
before the altar, and all the clergy do the same :
then the altar is vested with its covering, and the
cross and the book of the gospel are laid upon it,
while the clergy and the people sing. A procession
is formed and passes with sounds of music three
times round the altar ; and mass is celebrated.
Afterwards the patriarch breaks the gourd and the
water-vessels, and the fragments are taken away and
cherished by the people.

344 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. ix,

THE CONSECRATION OF A BAPTISTERY.

Such rubrics relating to the position of the bap
tistery as survive prescribe that it should be at the
south-east corner of the church. These rubrics,
however, which are of mediaeval date, not only
show a departure from the original custom, which
placed the baptistery at the south-west corner in the
narthex ; but are in themselves of no great authority.
For I have already shown that, once the baptistery
was removed within the body of the church, no
inflexible rule for its position was known or followed.
It is, however, essential that the picture of our
Lord's baptism should be placed against the wall, or
in a niche near the font.

The consecration must take place on Sunday, if
possible, and at the preceding vespers the font must
be well washed. Eastward of the font three lamps,
filled with pure oil of Palestine, must be kindled at
the rising of the sun. Three water-pots filled with
fresh water must be provided ; also an instrument of
aspersion made of palm twined with leaves of silk ;
some basil ; a new sponge ; and candles burning on
candelabra. The service commences in the church,
where, after various psalms and lessons with prayers,
the pontiff censes the altar saying the prayer of
incense. Then the pontiff sits upon his throne,
while the catholic epistles are read ; after which a
procession with incense passes round the church
into the new baptistery, where the bishop signs the
font and each of the three water-vessels with the
sign of the cross, and blesses the water. At the

CH. ix.] Variotts Ceremonies. 345

prayer of absolution to the Son the bishop puts
on his crown or ballin ; and when it is ended, casts
the hallowed water into the font, and breaks the
vessels. Then he takes the aspersory of palm, and
dipping it in the water sprinkles the whole font in
crosses, saying, 'Alleluia,' to which the clergy answer,
'Alleluia.' In the same way he sprinkles all the
walls of the baptistery ; and then, while psalms and
other chaunts are sung, he washes the inner part of
the font with the basil. Next the water is let off
from the font, which is sponged out and dried.
This done, the bishop, receiving a vessel of chrism
covered with a veil, opens it, and signs with the
holy oil five crosses on the interior of the font, one
at each side and one in the middle. At the east he
exclaims, ' I consecrate ^ this font for the baptism
of the Holy Spirit': at the west, 'I consecrate ^
this font in the name of the Holy Trinity, of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost': at
the north, ' I consecrate ^ this font after the manner
of the fonts of our holy fathers the apostles ' : at the
south, ' I consecrate ^ this font after the manner
of the font of St. John the Baptist': and lastly,
when he signs the cross upon the middle, he says,
' Blessed *k be the Lord God, now and for ever1/
According to one rubric, when the bishop has
made the five crosses, he also makes two circles
with the chrism, one round the lower and one round
the upper part of the interior. The service ends
with the benediction.

1 Denzinger, Rit. Or. torn. ii. pp. 236-248.

346 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.

THE FESTIVAL OF THE EPIPHANY l.

Volumes would be required to give an account in
detail of all the religious customs of a people so
much given as the Copts to ceremonial. Here it
must suffice to sketch lightly some of their more
solemn observances.

Of all the festivals of our Lord, one of the most
characteristic in its mode of celebration is that of
the Epiphany, which the Copts call the Theophany,
or more familiarly the Festival of the Tank. This
happens about the i6th January at night. The
midnight office is recited in the narthex beside the
greater tank, which has been filled with water.
After the office the patriarch or bishop retires to
the sacristy, and is vested in full pontifical apparel.
He returns in procession with the other clergy, and
a cross of iron is carried before him by a deacon.
Special psalms and special hymns are then sung,
and beside the tank is placed a candelabrum with
three tapers which are lighted 2. Then comes the
benediction of the water, various prayers and lessons
being recited over it : moreover the pontiff censes it
and stirs it crosswise with his pastoral staff, as do
also all other bishops present in due order. This
benediction lasts about two hours ; but when it is
over, the patriarch blesses also all the clergy and the
congregation, sprinkling them with the holy water.
Originally the custom was for the people to rush
tumultuously into the water, each striving to be one

1 ^Ik^iJI j^c or ,_

2 An illustration is given above, p. 70, of the very candlestick
seen by Vansleb at this ceremony. See his Voyage, p. 342.

CH. ix.] Various Ceremonies. 347

of the three whom the patriarch dipped thrice, and
who were thus supposed to receive a special blessing.
Those who failed of that distinction dipped them
selves : and when the men had finished, they retired
to the choir, while the women came and disported
themselves, according to Vansleb, quite drapeless.
It is not surprising that such a custom led to scenes
of unseemliness, which caused its abolition.

After the aspersion follows the ordinary office of
matins, and a festival celebration of the korban.
The gospels and epistles which are read during the
service relate to the baptism of our Lord in the
river Jordan ; as, of course, for every festival special
epistles and gospels are appointed.

The origin of this curious Epiphany custom goes
back to the remotest Christian antiquity. The
early Christians near the Jordan are said to have
commemorated the festival by bathing in the river ;
and the place where our Lord is supposed to have
been baptized was specially frequented 1. St. Chry-
sostom remarks on the practice of consecrating
water at night on the feast of Epiphany ; and other
early evidences might be cited. It is probable
that at first in Egypt some spot on the bank of the
river Nile was chosen for the ceremony ; and in
remote places any stream or well of water served
the purpose. Later, and more particularly after the
Arab conquest, when the open performance of the
rite was rendered dangerous or impossible, the bene
diction of the water took place within a sacred
building, and it became customary to build the large
tank generally found in the narthex. Quite in

1 It is one of the duties of the Copt, on his pilgrimage to Jeru
salem, to bathe in the Jordan.

348 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. ix.

accordance with this theory, we may notice that the
earliest churches of all — those distinctly anterior to
the Muslim invasion — have no such tank. Such, for
instance, are the church of the White Monastery
and most of the churches of the desert ; while, on
the other hand, buildings decidedly later than the
Mohammedan era, such as Abu Sargah and Abu-'s-
Sifain, have a tank which is plainly part of the
original structure. That anciently in Egypt the
festival of the Epiphany was associated specially
with the sacrament of baptism admits of no question ;
but what was the exact nature of the association, how
far the Epiphany tank was used as a font for bap
tismal immersion, and for what period such usage
lasted, are problems which seem beyond solution.
But the presence of the lighted candles at the
ceremony of consecration looks like a baptismal
reminiscence, as was also the unclothing of those
who plunged in the water.

The Melkites retain the Epiphany consecration of
water in a somewhat different form. A small cross
decked with sprays of olive or some leafy shrub is
blessed, and thrown into a river or any convenient
water, after a service of prayer held by the bishop
over the water. The bishop and his clergy are
arrayed in full processional vestments, and so march
down to the riverside, followed by the multitude of
the people. When the cross is thrown into the water,
a number of men plunge in, and struggle for its
possession ; for it is supposed to bring to the owner
a blessing for the coming year. There is a Melkite
church and community at Port Said, where I have
seen the ceremony performed, for want of fresh
water, on the quay of the harbour.

CH. ix.j Various Ceremonies. 349

The like ceremony lingers to this day also in
Armenia. There, after the liturgy on the feast of
Epiphany, a large metal vessel of water is set up in
the choir, and a procession passes round the church.
In this procession the priests carry a taper and a
gospel, deacons carry a taper and a thurible, the
subdeacons a taper only. Last comes the celebrant,
who carries a large cross. When they return to the
choir, the celebrant hallows the water, dividing it
crosswise with the cross, and pouring upon it chrism
in like manner. After the service the people carry
away the water to sprinkle their houses, wells, and
streams ; but the same form of benediction is re
peated on that day in the open air over all rivers
and fountains in the vicinity.

PALM SUNDAY AND HOLY WEEK.

Osanna Sunday is the name given by the Copts
to the feast of palms, which, doubtless, was celebrated
by them long before a similar celebration found its
way into western ritual. There is a solemn mid
night l service held in the church, at which the
bishop blesses branches of palm. A grand proces
sion then forms, the clergy bearing crosses and
tapers and palm branches : they sing as they move,
and make a station singing before every altar and
all the principal pictures and reliquaries. Passing

1 The Coptic hours are (i) Midnight or Matins. (2) Dawn or
Lauds, at 6 a.m. (3) Tierce, at 9 a.m. (4) Sext, at noon. (5)
Nones, at 3 p.m. (6) Vespers, at 6 p.m. or sunset. (7) Compline,
at 7.30 p.m.

35° Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. ix.

thus round the church they return to the haikal,
where the mass is accomplished. The lessons read
are those appointed for the dead, because all
obsequies are, if possible, avoided during Holy
Week. In olden times, before the days of persecu
tion, and sometimes even after the Arab conquest,
a great procession passed from the principal church
at Alexandria through the town bearing the blessed
branches. To this day the people carry them home,
and weave from them baskets and other like things,
which they send to their friends. In the Nestorian
and Armenian rituals Palm Sunday is celebrated
with the same benediction of branches.

At one o'clock in the night following Palm Sunday
in Egypt the prayers of Eastertide begin, and ought
to be continued without ceasing until Easter morn
ing. The mass is not celebrated on the Monday,
Tuesday, or Wednesday ; and all the prayers are
recited in the choir, while the door of the haikal is
closed.

On Maundy Thursday 1 tierce, sext, and nones
are duly recited ; after which, if there be no conse
cration of the holy oils to come first, a procession is
formed to the small tank in the nave, where the
patriarch blesses the water with ceremonies similar
to those ordained for Epiphany : but the gospels and
hymns on this occasion dwell upon the subject of
our Lord's washing the feet of his disciples. At the
end of the prayers the patriarch gives his benison
to the assembled priests and people, sprinkling them
with water from the tank : then also he washes
the feet of sundry persons, both cleric and lay, and

1 Called jjJl ^^^..i. or Thursday of the Covenant.

CH. ix.] Various Ceremonies. 351

dries them with a towel. On this day, immediately
after the washing of feet, the door of the haikal is
opened for the celebration of the holy communion,
after which it is closed again : but in this mass the
kiss of peace and the commemoration of the dead
are omitted.

In the Armenian rite for Maundy Thursday a
vessel of water is placed in the choir, and chrism is
poured crosswise upon it at the benediction. When
the bishop has washed the feet of clergy and people,
he also anoints them. Then, resuming the cope,
which was laid aside for the feet-washing, he is lifted
up on high, and dispenses the people from fasting
during Eastertide.

The churches continue open all night with cease
less services, in which the hymns, orisons, and lec
tions relate to the Passion. On Good Friday l
morning at tierce a small cross is set up in the nave ;
but at the eleventh hour the cross is replaced by a
picture of the crucifixion. The nave meanwhile is
illuminated with a great number of tapers and lamps.
Then the priests put on their vestments, and offer
incense before the picture, singing the praises of the
Crucified. All the hymns and chaunts on this day
are very slow and mournful in tone : the gospels all
commemorate the crucifixion. Prayers for all the
faithful are recited at the end of the sixth, ninth,
eleventh and twelfth hours : and a certain number
of genuflexions are made by the congregation at
various places, where the name of Christ is named.
When the twelfth hour is over, the bishop or kummus
uplifts the cross, on which three tapers are burning,

or Great Friday.

352 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. ix.

while the people cry one hundred kyries towards
each of the cardinal points. Then a procession
forms and passes three times round the church,
carrying the picture of the crucifixion, which they
take to the altar. Upon the altar a silken veil is
lying ; and the cross, which was set up in the nave,
and the picture, being placed on the veil, are covered
with rose-leaves and myrrh and basil ; then the veil
is folded over them, and thus they are removed and
buried underneath the altar. This ceremony of
course typifies the entombment of our Lord, and
corresponds to the burial of the rood in the Easter
sepulchre, as practised in our ancient English Church.
While it is enacting, the congregation pray; and when
it is finished, they go to their homes and break their
fast.

Here again a comparison of Armenian custom is
interesting. A representation of the tomb of our
Lord is set up in the midst of the choir on Good
Friday : on it is a cross engraved or painted with
a figure of Christ, which the people kiss. It remains
in this position until the commencement of the mass
on Easter eve.

On the night of Holy Saturday l the whole psalter
is recited. There is also a procession through the
church, in which stations are made, while the choir
sing the song of the Three Children : the story of
Nebuchadnezzar is also read. Mass is celebrated as
on Good Friday, except the lessons, half of which

or Saturday of Light. The name points to the
custom of kindling Easter fire as practised in the Greek Church :
but I cannot ascertain positively that the Copts agree with the
Greeks in this particular.

CH. ix. j Various Ceremonies. 353

are read in a mournful tone, half in a tone of joy.
After mass all the gospel of St. John is read, and
the silver book of the gospel is carried in procession
round the church : a great number of hymns follow,
and the service lasts all through the hours of
darkness.

On Easter 1 morning the psalms and hymns of
the resurrection are sung, and after them come the
censing of the altar and the office of matins. Im
mediately following matins the celebration of the
korban commences : but on this occasion it is neces
sary for the priest to wear all the liturgical vest
ments at matins as well as at mass. As soon as the
epistles are ended, and before the gospel of the mass
is begun, the doors of the haikal are closed : then,
the priests standing within the sanctuary, and the
deacons without in the choir, all together sing the
hymn of the resurrection. It is apparently at this
point that the cross and the picture of the crucifixion
are disentombed from the cavity under the altar.
When the hymn is finished, the doors of the haikal
are thrown open again, and priests and deacons pass
three times round the church in solemn procession.
They chaunt appropriate music as they move, and
they carry with them the picture of the resurrec
tion. On their return to the choir the picture is
put in its accustomed place, and the remainder of
the service is performed in the manner usual on
Sundays.

i. e. the Festival of the Resurrection,
i. e. the Great Festival.

VOL. ii. A a

354 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. ix.

THE SEASONS OF FASTING.

The Copts have been at all times noted for the
number and severity of their seasons of abstinence :
nor even at the present day has the general recogni
tion of such seasons in any way diminished, though
now, as before, there are many individual examples
of laxity. Lent is, of course, the most important time
of fasting, and so is called the Great Fast l in con
tradistinction to Advent or the Little Fast 2. In
ancient times Lent began on the day after the feast
of Epiphany, and lasted for forty days. Holy Week
was then a separate season, some six weeks later
than the end of Lent, and coinciding with the Jewish
Passover. But tradition relates that the Coptic
patriarch Demetrius at the end of the second century
fixed the time for Lent as at present, and joined on
to it the season of Holy Week.

The Coptic Lent begins on Monday, and lasts up
to Palm Sunday. During this time the people are
forbidden to eat meat or eggs or fish, or to drink
wine. Coffee also is forbidden. Moreover no food
or drink whatever may be taken between the hours
of sunrise and sunset : but in cases of special weak
ness a dispensation is granted of such a kind as may
be needful. The Mohammedan fast of Ramadan
somewhat resembles the Christian Lent in its regu
lations, and was probably borrowed from it. During
Lent mass is celebrated at nones except on Saturday
and Sunday.

The greater part of Holy Week is also observed

CH. ix. j Various Ceremonies. 355

as a fast by the Copts, and every Friday up to the
hour of nones.

It was, and still is to some extent, customary
during Lent for the Copts to undertake a great
pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The journey on camels
occupied about fifteen days, and great numbers went
together l. They reached J erusalem for Palm Sunday,
spent the week in visiting the holy places, and on
Easter morning attended mass in the church of the
Holy Sepulchre. A pilgrimage to Jerusalem formed
also one of the canonical penances.

Advent lasts for forty days preceding the feast of
the Nativity 2, and is rather less severe in its regu
lations than Lent, fish for instance not being pro
hibited. But on Christmas eve, as well as on the
eve of Epiphany, a fast is appointed until sunset.

Another fast is that called the Fast of Heraclius.
The legend is that on his passage through Palestine
that emperor all along his route promised safety to
the Jews : but when he arrived at Jerusalem, he
was entreated by the Christians there to massacre
the Jews, in revenge for cruelties practised by them,
and particularly for the pillage of the Holy City, in
which the Jews had leagued with the Persians.
Heraclius, hesitating to break his promise and to
cancel the bond given even in writing, was over-
persuaded by the Christians, who all engaged for
themselves and their posterity to fast a week for
him to the end of the world. So the massacre was
ordered, and the fast continues. It preceded Lent,
but now has been incorporated with it, the first

1 According to Abu Dakn as many as 60,000 Copts sometimes
started from Cairo : but the estimate is obviously exaggerated.

Ju.fi.

A a 2

356 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. ix.

week of the great fast being called the F^ast of
Heraclius.

The third great fast of the Coptic Church, called
the Fast of the Apostles, begins with Pentecost and
lasts for about forty days : but the time of its dura
tion varies. Another period of abstinence for three
days, which is called the Fast of Niniveh, comes
about a fortnight before Lent : and a fifteen days'
fast in honour of the Assumption of the Virgin is
observed, beginning on the first day of August.

CHAPTER X.

Legends of the Saints 1.

LEGEND OF ABU-'S-SIFAIN OR ST. MERCURIUS.

N this day died St. Mercurius, who was of
the city of Rome. His grandfather and
father were hunters of wild beasts : who
going out upon a certain day, as was their
wont, were met by two men with faces of dogs 2, who
slew the grandfather. And when they were fain to
slay the father also, the angel of the Lord prevented
them, and said, * Touch him not, for from him shall
come forth good fruit.' Thereon the angel sur
rounded the men with a fence of fire ; and they being
straitened besought the father of Mercurius, and did
worship before him : and God changed their hearts
into meekness, so that they became as lambs, and
entered with him into the city. After that Mer
curius was bestowed on him of God, but his father
called him Philopater. As for the dog-faces, they
abode in that house a long time and were converted,
abiding until Philopater grew to man's estate and
became a soldier. They were wont to go with him
into the wars, and none could withstand them,
because their faces remained as aforetime. After
ward they died.

1 See pp. 259, 260, supra.

2 Sic : it seems to be an expression denoting the heathen.

358 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

As for the saint, he became one of those to whom
God gave power and courage : and the people of the
city called his name Mercurius. At this time there
was at Rome the king Dacius, who was a worshipper
of idols ; and a flock of barbarians coming upon his
city, he gathered together his army, and went out to
meet them. But, seeing their multitude, he became
amazed and affrighted. Howbeit Mercurius went
forward unto him and said, ' Fear not : God will
destroy our enemies, and will deliver them into our
hand/ When he left the king, a man of light robed
in long white raiment appeared unto him : in his
hand was a sword which he gave unto Mercurius
saying, ' If thou dost vanquish thy enemies, remember
the Lord thy God/ Wherefore when Mercurius
prevailed over them, and went back as a van
quisher, the angel appeared unto him, and brought
to his mind to remember the name of the Lord.
So when the war was ended, and the king wished to
worship his idols, together with his soldiers, Mer
curius went not to worship. King Dacius hearing
thereof made him come, and was astonished when he
saw that the love of Mercurius to him was changed.
But Mercurius cast in the king's face his garment and
his girdle, saying, ' I will not deny my Lord Jesus/
Whereupon the king was exceeding wroth, and
commanded to beat him with palm rods and with
scourges : but fearing that the people would rise
against him for Mercurius' sake, he led him bound
with iron chains to Caesarea, and ordered that his
head be taken there.

So was his holy war accomplished, and he won
the crown of life in the kingdom of heaven.
May his intercession be with us.

CH. x,j Legends of the Saints. 359

After his martyrdom, in the days of Julianus the
heathen king, who persecuted the believers, St. Basil
asked Mercurius with great beseeching to avenge
him on the heathen king : wherefore the Lord sent
St. Mercurius, who pierced the king with his spear,
and slew him. Before the departing of his soul, he
filled the palm of his hand with blood, and sprinkled
it towards heaven, saying, ' O Lord, receive the soul
which thou gavest me/

And his image is under him l.

May his prayers be with us and preserve us.
Amen.

LEGEND OF ABU-'S-SIFAIN 2.

On this day we feast for the consecration of the
church of the great martyr, lover of his parents,
Mercurius Abu-'s-Sifain, hero of Jesus Christ.

His father was of Rome, a hunter of wild beasts,
and this martyr was bestowed upon him by the word
of the angel of the Lord. His name was at the first
Abadir, and he was brought up among the faces of
dogs.

When he grew up, he became a soldier ; and in
the reign of the king Dacius, a heathen king and
worshipper of idols, Abu-'s-Sifain went to him and
threw down his girdle before his face; and then girded
himself, and said, ' I do not deny my Lord and my
God Jesus Christ/ The king ordered him to be

1 I. e. the figure of Julian is under St. Mercurius in the pictures.
Abu- s-Sifain is so called because of his many battles: he is
generally depicted brandishing two swords.

2 Another version of the same story.

360 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

beaten with palm rods and scourges ; then sent him
to Caesarea, where he was beheaded : and his war
was completed, and he obtained the crown of life.
After his martyrdom they built churches in his
name.

In the time of St. Basilius there was a king, a
hypocrite, whose name was Julianus. This king im
prisoned Basilius and went to war abroad. Basilius
saw in his prison some other Christian prisoners,
for whom he went to pray ; and while he prayed he
looked on the wall, and saw a painting of Mercurius
riding on a horse and carrying in his hand a
spear. St. Basilius besought him to kill the king,
and to deliver the people of Christ from the royal
tyranny. Then the picture vanished from the wall,
and at once returned, and in it Mercurius showed
his spear dripping with blood. Thereupon Basilius
asked, * Hast thou slain him?' He bowed his head.
This is the reason that the painters always paint
Mercurius leaning down his head, and St. Basilius
before him.

May his prayers be with us, and save us from the
enemy till the last breath. Amen.

LEGEND OF ANBA SIIANUDAIJ.

On this day died the holy father, the monk, the
worshipper Anba Shanudah, the archimandrite from
the city of the Cataracts in Akhmim. His father
was a tiller of the soil and kept a flock of sheep ;
these sheep he gave to his son to watch. Sha-
nudah's custom was to give his food to the other

CH. x.] Legends of the Saints. 361

shepherds, and then going down to a lake of water
in the winter, when it is very cold, in this lake he
stood and prayed. A holy old man said that he
saw the ten fingers of Shanudah shining like ten
lamps.

His father took him, and went to his uncle Anba
Yagul, that he might bless him. Howbeit Yagul
took the boy's hand, and put it upon his own head,
saying, ' Bless thou me ; for thou shalt be a great
saint for a great multitude.' So his father left him
with his uncle. On a certain day a voice was heard
crying from heaven and saying, 'Anba Shanudah is
hallowed archimandrite for all the world.' Then
Shanudah began from this time to do many devout
things and many worshippings. At his uncle's death
he was put in his place ; and he became a light to all
the country, and made many discourses and rules for
monks, abbots, laymen, and women. He went to the
Council of the Two Hundred at Ephesus with the
Father Cyrillus. His disciples did not wish to take
him in the ship ; so a cloud carried him, and he
passed before the patriarch, who was in the ship, and
greeted him. All were amazed.

Jesus Christ came many times to speak with him,
and he washed Christ's feet and drank the water. The
Lord revealed to him many hidden things, and he
prophesied many prophecies, and lived like Moses
one hundred and twenty years. At his death he
saw an assembly of saints who came behind him : he
saw also our Lord Jesus Christ, and said, ' Hold me,
that I may worship the Lord.' They lifted him up,
and he worshipped. Then said he unto them, ' Fare
well in the Lord.' He left with the young many
commandments : and he died in peace.

362 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

May the blessing of his prayers be with us.
Amen.

LEGEND. OF MARI MINA.

On this day we feast for the holy father Mari
Mina. He was born at Mareotis near Alexandria.
The finding of his body after burial was on this wise.
None knew where he was buried : but the Lord
wished to show where the holy body lay. It came
to pass that a certain shepherd, watching his flock
near a hill, saw a lamb with a soreness bathing
himself in the river, and then rolling in dust over
that place where the body of the saint was buried ;
and at once the lamb was cured. The shepherd
was amazed, and took every lamb which had the
same sickness to that place, made them bathe, and
then roll in the dust. All were cured forthwith.
He did likewise with sick men; and all sick persons
who put the dust upon them were made whole.
Howbeit none knew the reason of this thing.

Now the king heard of the shepherd ; and having
a leprous daughter he sent her to the shepherd, who
wrought on her the same cure by the same means.
When she wished to know the reason of this thing,
Mari Mina appeared to her in a vision, and said unto
her, ' My body is in this place : the Lord bids thee
to dig, and to bring it forth.' Being awakened, she
did according to this word, and brought forth the
noble body, and built on the spot a church.

Then the king bade all chiefs and notables to
build houses near the place ; and the city was called

CH. x.j Legends of the Saints. 363

Mareotis. Many wonders were shown from this
body. The patriarch and bishops came and con
secrated the church, and the fame of its wonder
spread on every side. All this was wrought by the
power of the martyr Mari Mina.

May his blessing and intercession be with us.
Amen.

LEGEND OF MARI TADRUS.

His father was called Yuan, who came from the
village Shatb in Upper Egypt. He was taken
prisoner to Antioch ; where he dwelt, and married
a daughter of the place, who worshipped idols, and
knew not God's worship. She bore him this saint
called Tadrus. But when she wished to present
him to the house of idols, and to teach him her
worship, the father was angry and suffered her not.
So she drove him away from the house, and kept
the boy with her. The father prayed without
ceasing that God would lead his son in the way
of salvation.

When the saint grew up, he learned science and
wisdom ; and God enlightened the two eyes of his
heart, so that he went to a bishop, who baptised him.
His mother hearing thereof waxed very wroth. The
boy asked if his father was dead or no, and a servant
of the house told him that his mother drove him
away for being a Christian. Tadrus became a soldier
of the king, and then a captain of an army. When
the king went to make war with the Persians, he
took this saint with him to accompany his son. In
the city of Ukhaitus (sic) there was a great dragon,

364 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

which the people of the city worshipped ; and they
were wont to offer him year by year some one that
he might eat him. There was a Christian widow in
the city who had two children ; and it came to pass
that the people took the children, and offered them
to the dragon, at the time when Mari Tadrus was
there. The woman stood before him and wept,
telling him her matter. When he knew that she
was a Christian, he thought ' This widowed woman
is persecuted, and God will avenge her.' Then he
got down from his horse, and turned his face to the
east and prayed ; and he went towards the dragon,
all the people watching him from the walls. The
length of this dragon was twelve cubits : but the
Lord gave Tadrus power against: the dragon, and he
pierced him with his spear and slew him. Thus he
delivered the widow's two children. Thence he
went to Upper Egypt to look for his father. There
he found him, and knew him by means of tokens
which his father showed him. He abode in that
place until his father died : then he went back to
Antioch, where he found the king had become a
heathen, and was persecuting the believers in Christ.
So he went to the king, and confessed before him
the Lord Jesus Christ. Ere this the priests of the
idols had slandered him to the king, and the people
of Ukhaitus told the king ' This is the man that
killed the dragon, our god.' Thereupon the king
commanded to torture him. He was punished by
instruments of torture, but the Lord strengthened
him. Then the king commanded to burn him ; so
they threw him in the fire, and beheaded him. His
martyrdom was accomplished.

A woman of the faithful took his body, which she

CH. x.] Legends of the Saints. 365

purchased for a great sum, and hid it in the house,
till the end of the persecution. Then she built
churches in his name. Howbeit some say that this
woman was his mother.

May his intercessions be with us. Amen.

LEGEND OF MART GIRGIS, OR
ST. GEORGE.

This saint was born in the year 280 of the
Messiah. He was of noble parents and brought
up with a good education. When he was fourteen
years old, his brother died, and he became a
captain in the army at Dicaeopolis. Then he
fought and slew the great dragon, and delivered
the king's daughter, on whom the lot fell a certain
year to be given up to the dragon. Whereupon the
king for his good courage made him vizier, not
knowing that he was a believer in Christ. He is
called the first martyr under Diocletian. Now on a
certain day Mari Girgis saw a proclamation against
the Christian religion, and tore it down publicly
with great anger. Henceforth he scorned office and
all worldly things, and prepared to defend the faith.
So he distributed his wealth, freed his slaves, and
went to the court : there he spoke to the king and
chiefs saying, ' How, O king and chiefs, durst ye
make such proclamation against the religion of
Christ, the true religion ? ' The king was wroth,
but hid his anger, and signed to the consul Magnetius
(sic) to answer for him. The consul said, ' Who
emboldened thee to do this thing?' Mari Girgis

366 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

answered and said, ' I am a Christian, and come to
witness to the truth.' Then the king told him
under threat of torture to worship his idols : when
Mari Girgis refused, the king ordered him to be
driven out and pierced with spears. Howbeit the
spears nowise hurt him. Then he was cast into
prison, where they tied his feet, and put a paving-
stone upon his breast. He continued till next day
thanking God ; and on the morrow, being brought
before the king, he persisted in his faith. Then the
king ordered him to be tied by thin ropes on a
board set with iron spikes, so that the cords cut his
flesh : also a cupboard with knives inside it was put
on his breast. But Mari Girgis endured this torture,
thanking God.

So the king, fearing he would die, loosed him,
and told him again to believe in the heathen gods.
But Girgis refused. And a dark cloud appeared
with thunder and lightning, and a voice came out of
the cloud saying, ' Fear not, O Mari Girgis : I am
with thee : whereat astonishment fell on the by
standers. Next he was put in a tank full of hot
plaster, where he remained three days without
suffering any evil. Thus far, then, the torments of
the saint : now shall come his wonders.

A sorcerer once presented to him a magic cup.
Girgis made the sign of the cross on it, the life-
giving cross which belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory. When he drank of the cup, he
took no hurt. The sorcerer seeing this believed in
our Lord Jesus Christ.

By power of prayer accepted before our Lord the
thrones on which the heathen kings were sitting
blossomed into leaf and flowers.

CH. x.] Legends of the Saints. 367

By prayer also he once cured a widow's son.
May his prayers and intercessions be with us.
Amen.

LEGEND OF ABU KIR AND YUHANNA, OR
SS. CYRUS AND JOHN.

Abu Kir was of the city of Damanhur, near to
Abu Sir west of the Nile. He had a brother called
Philipa : and both were very rich. They agreed
with two priests called Yuhanna and Abtulmaz, and
the four went to Kartassah, where was the governor.
Before him they confessed the Lord Jesus Christ.
He commanded them to be shot upon with arrows ;
but the arrows came not nigh them at all. Next he
commanded them to be cast into a burning fiery
furnace ; but the Lord sent his angel, and delivered
them from the fire. Then the king commanded
them to be bound to the tails of horses, and to be
dragged from Kartassah to Damanhur. All this
was done to them, and they took no hurt. At last
the king commanded them to be beheaded by the
sword outside the city of Damanhur. Their mar
tyrdom was accomplished, and they obtained its
crown. Some men came from Sa al Haggar, and
took the body of Abu Kir, and built thereover a
church. But the bodies of the other three saints
were taken by people of Damanhur, who wrapped
them in goodly apparel, and placed them in
Damanhur.

May the prayers of all be with us, and save us
from the evil enemy till the last breath. Amen.

Afterwards an angel appeared to the patriarch

368 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

Cyrillus of Alexandria, bidding him take away the
bodies of Abu Kir and Yuhanna. So the people
went and dug them out, and carried them with
honour to the church of St. Mark at Alexandria
by the river. There they built a church over
them.

Near this church was an underground labyrinth
of the idols, where the heathen were wont to meet
every year to make a feast to the idols. When
they saw the wonders that were shown from the
bodies of these two saints, they left their idols and
their labyrinth, and became Christians.

LEGEND OF YAKUB AL MUKATT'A, OR ST. JAMES
WHO WAS CUT TO PIECES.

On this day won martyrdom Mari Yakub al
Mukatt'a. He was of the soldiers of Sacratus, son
of Safur king of Persia. He was greatly beloved
by the king, who took his counsel in many things ;
and for that reason he inclined the heart of this
saint from the worship of Jesus Christ. His mother
and wife and sister hearing of this wrote unto him a
letter, saying, ' Why hast thou forsaken the faith in
Jesus Christ, and followed the created elements, to
wit fire and sun ? Know that if thou dost persist
herein, we shall be as strangers unto thee hence
forward/

When he read this letter, he wept with bitter
weeping, and said, ' If my kinsfolk are estranged
from me, how can I be estranged from the Lord
Jesus ?' From this time forth he began to read in

CH. x.] Legends of the Saints. 369

Christian books ; and he wept, and forsook the
king's service. But when certain persons told the
king about him, he bade him come ; and seeing that
what they reported was true, he commanded to
scourge him with grievous scourgings. Howbeit this
changed not his belief. Then the king commanded
to cut him with knives. So they cut off the fingers
of his hands, then the toes of his feet, and his legs,
and his hands and his arms, and they cut him into
thirty-two pieces. Whenever they cut a limb from
him, he sang hymns, and said, * O God of the
Christians, receive unto thee a branch of the tree in
the greatness of thy mercy : for if the vine-dressers
dress the vine, it will blossom in the month of Ni-
sann1, and its branches will spread abroad.'

When nought remained save his breast, his head,
and his waist, and he knew that the time drew near
for the deliverance of his soul, he asked of the Lord
to have mercy on them, and to pity them, saying,
'My hands are not left unto me, that I may lift them
up unto Thee, and here my limbs are thrown around
me : wherefore receive, O Lord, my soul/

Forthwith Christ Jesus appeared unto him, and
comforted him, and strengthened him, and he was
glad. Ere he gave up the ghost, he made haste and
took his holy head (sic) and went to the places of
light to Christ who loved him. His body was taken
by God-fearing men, who wrapped it well, and put it
in a goodly place. His mother and wife and sister,
hearing of his martyrdom, rejoiced exceedingly; and
came to the place of his body, and wept thereon, and
put upon it costly apparel and spices.

1 I. e. in the springtime. Nisann corresponds to April.

VOL. II. B b

370 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

In the reign of Arcadius and Honorius, two good
kings, a church and monastery were built upon it.

The king of Persia hearing of this monastery, and
of the martyrs and of their bodies, and the miracles
which were shown from them, commanded to burn
the bodies of the saints in every place throughout
his kingdom. Then some of the believers took the
body of St. James, and coming with it to Jerusalem,
placed it with St. Peter the bishop of Rahui. With
him it continued till Marcian became king. At that
time St. Peter took it and came into Egypt, unto a
city called Bahnasah. There he abode some days,
and with him certain monks. While they were
singing hymns at the sixth hour near the body,
St. James appeared unto them with a multitude of
Persian martyrs, who were clad in Persian raiment.
And they sang hymns with them and blessed them.
Afterward the saint said unto them, ' My body shall
lie here according to the Lord's commandment.'
Then Peter the bishop, wishing to return to his own
country, took with him the body and bare it to the
sea : thus he disobeyed the word of the saint. But
the body was caught away from their hands to the
place where it was before.

May his intercession preserve us for ever. Amen.

It was said that his body in Persia, when there
was a feast and the people were gathered together
around it, was wont to move in its coffin till the end
of the feast. Where the body of the saint now is
none knoweth.

May his prayers be with us. Amen.

CH. x.j Legends of the Saints. 371

LEGEND OF THE FIVE AND THEIR MOTHER.

This day we make the feast of Kosman and
Dimian and their brothers Antinous, Laudius and
Ibrabius, and their mother. These were from the
city of Daperma in the Arab country. Their mother
was called Theodora. She was a God-fearing woman,
a widow, and kind of heart. She taught her children
medicine, and they visited all, and chiefly the poor,
without money or price. When the king Diocletian
became heathen, he heard that these heroes did
break upon the worship of the idols. He bade
them to come, and tortured them with all manner of
torture, such as beating, burning with fire, and
casting them into bath furnaces during three days
and three nights. From all this the Lord made
them arise without scathe. Their mother continually
comforted them, and strengthened them to bear the
torment.

Then she blasphemed the king to his face, and
all his wicked gods also. The king commanded to
behead her, and she won the crown of life. Her
body remained after her death cast away, and none
dare bury it ; but her son Kosman cried and said,
1 O people of the city, have ye no pity in your hearts
to carry the body of this old widowed woman to
burial ? '

Hearing this one called Buktor, son of Romanus,
took the body, wrapped it in a shroud, and buried it.
Then the king ordered him to be banished to Egypt,
where he died.

As for her children, the next day the)' also were
B b 2

372 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

beheaded and obtained eternal life. When the perse
cution was over, the people built to them churches,
which were consecrated on such a day as this ; and
from them were shown many miracles.
May their prayers be with us. Amen.

LEGEND OF ABU NAFR.

On this day died the good father, the master of
fair report and of good old age, the saint Abu Nafr,
the wanderer in the wilderness of Upper Egypt.
This is according to the word of St. Bifnutius, who
desired to see the wanderers, who are servants of
God. He saw some of them, and wrote their story;
among whom was this saint.

He saith, that when he entered the wilderness, he
saw a fountain and a palm-tree, and the saint Abu
Nafr coming towards him ; he was naked, and the
hair of his head and of his beard covered his body.
Bifnutius seeing him was afraid, and thought that he
was a spirit. Abu Nafr crossed before him, and
prayed the prayer of the gospel, which is ' Our
Father which art in heaven.' Then he said to him,
' Welcome, O Bifnutius.' When he heard himself
called by his name, and heard also the prayer, his
fear departed. Then the two began to pray together ;
after that they sat and communed together about
the marvels of God. Bifnutius asked Abu Nafr to
tell him what was the reason of his coming to this
place, and where he had been before that ?

He answered and said, ' I had been in a mon
astery, in the which are pious and good monks.
One day I heard the monks speaking about the

CH. x.] Legends of the Saints. 373

dwellers in the wilderness, namely the wanderers,
and praising them for every kind of excellence.
I asked them, " Why are they better than you ? "
They said, " Because they dwell in the wilderness,
but we are near to the world : and if one day we
are angry, we find some person to comfort us ; and
if we are sick, we find those who visit us ; and if we
are naked, we find those who clothe us ; anything
whatsoever we desire we can obtain ; but all these
privileges are not for the dwellers in the wilderness."
When I heard them speak thus, my heart burned
within me ; and in the night I took a little bread, and
went out from the monastery : then I prayed, and
asked our Lord for a place to dwell in. So I walked
on. The Lord directed me to a place where I found
a holy man, and with him I abode till he taught me
the way of wandering. Thus I came to this place,
wherein I found this palm-tree, which gives every
year twelve clusters of dates, and every cluster is
enough for one month. This is my food, and my
drink is from the water of this fountain. It is now
three score years that I am here. All this time
I have not seen any face of man but thine only.'

While they were speaking the angel of the Lord
came before them, and ministered unto them the
body of our Lord and his blood. After that they
ate very little food. Then the colour of the saint
Abu Nafr was changed, and became like fire, and
he bowed his knee and worshipped before God.
Then to Bifnutius he said, ' Fare thee well/ and gave
up the ghost1. The saint Bifnutius wrapped him
in a piece of linen, and buried him in a cave. He
sore coveted to dwell in his place ; but as soon as he

1 The Arabic idiom is the same exactly.

374 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

buried him, the palm-tree fell and the fountain was
dried up. This came to pass by the device of God,
that he might enter again into the world, and preach
the knowledge of the holy wanderers whom he had
seen, but specially of the saint Abu Nafr. In truth
he came to the world, and told the story of this
saint, and the day whereon he died.
May their prayers be with us. Amen.

LEGEND OF ANBA BARSUM AL ARIAN.

On this day died the holy father and the great,
Anba Barsum al Arian, who is naked from all vice
and clad with virtue ; who is perfect among the
saints and in the love of God. This saint was of
Egypt ; his father's name was Wagu, a scribe to
the Tree of Pearls1. His mother was daughter to
Al Tab'aun. His parents were very rich ; and when
they died, the uncle of the saint seized upon all their
possessions. Howbeit Barsum made no quarrel with
him, but left all the wealth of this world, and lived
the life of the good men and of the wanderers. He
possessed nought of this world's goods, and always
went naked, abiding in the church of the great
martyr Mercurius at Old Cairo2 in a grotto dark and
swampy, underground. He prisoned himself therein,
and abode there nearly twenty years, praying alway
day and night without ceasing. His food was beans
moistened with unsavoury brine ; his drink also was
brine. He was a very devout man, and there was

1 The sister of the last khalif of the Fatimite dynasty was called
1 The Tree of Pearls/ A.D. 1000.

2 See the plan of the church of Abu-'s-Sifain in vol. i.

CH. x.j Legends of the Saints. 375

no manner of worship but he did it. God gave him
power over devils, and was with him in secret and
in public; because this saint showed himself at the end
of time, when men could not achieve virtue by reason
of their weakness and feeblemindedness. So God
showed forth this father, who excelled many saints
in his devotion, his eating and his drinking, his
patience and his modesty, his chanty for all men and
well-doing for all, his pity upon them and upon
all creatures, and his making all men equal before
him in whatsoever they asked. He murmured not
at any, but was long-suffering x and of good patience.
With him great and small were one, poor and rich,
bond and free : all were equal before him in charity.
All this that he might accomplish and make perfect
all that was written about the saints that went before :
that men might know of a surety, by seeing and not
by hearing.

So when he came out from the cave, he went on
the roof of the church; there he abode suffering
heat and cold during winter and summer. And he
always tormented himself, staying in the sun all the
days of the summer, so that his skin became black ;
and this he did for devotion and for worship, and for
torture of nature, which he ever suffered. On the
roof he remained nigh fifteen years. At this time
arose in Egypt a great persecution, wherein all the
churches of the Copts were shut, and the Copts
were obliged to wear blue turbans of ten cubits in
length ; also their other raiment was changed,
They were dismissed from their offices, and were
compelled to ride the wrong way, and to put on a
kind of shoe which is called ' thasuma,5 and when-

1 The Arabic is literally ' long-minded/

376 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

ever they entered the bath they had to put little
bells round their necks. So that they were in sore
need in all things. They were persecuted and de
spised by the vulgar, who erewhile honoured them ;
and the khalif of this time was resolved to kill them
all, but God did not empower him. The reason of
all these things was their sins : for the apostle saith,
' Sin being accomplished begetteth death.'

But this father Barsum was always praying and
beseeching God with a fervent heart for the brethren.
He fasted forty days continually, till God took away
again his anger from them. Then the governor
of Egypt took him out from the church, and per
secuted him and imprisoned him ; but Barsum
foreknew this one day before it happened. When
he was in prison, he neither ate nor drank, but
whatever the believers brought him he gave to his
fellow-prisoners. When some of them asked of him,
* When shall we be delivered from prison ? ' he
answered, * On this day': and so it was.

Then they took him out of prison, and led him
into exile to the monastery of Sharan. There he
stood on the roof, as he was wont in Egypt No
man without God's help could excel him in devotion,
worship, austerity, and suffering the torture of nature.
For his food was of the things that are maggoty, and
was shown openly to venomous reptiles ; yet he ate
it very delicious and sweet by the grace of God,
And this is as the holy old man, full of innocence,
hath said in his book : ' God changed the bitterness
of their torment into sweetness:' and also as the
holy Mari Ishac Suriani and Mari Siman al Amudi
say, that ' God clothes his saints with a garment of
light ; so that they feel neither heat nor cold/

CH. x.j Legends of the Saints. 377

This saint all his life never lay on the ground but
with naked skin. He was comforter to every be
liever or unbeliever who took refuge with him.
He changed not his turban to blue, but God kept
him from all his adversaries. Most of the governors
of this time, princes and judges to wit, were wont to
resort unto him ; and they saw him wearing a white
turban ; and God protected him from their enmity.
None dare force him to wear the blue turban. He
converted many souls to salvation, and that out of
despair. He used alway to say that all sins are
forgiven after repentance. He always spake in holy
similitudes, which were not understood save by those
enlightened of God. He was a great comforter to
the people, because by his prayers God put away
his anger. Churches were opened, men rode the
right way, and were employed in office, and their
raiment was made right, and all the aforesaid changes
were abolished save only the blue turbans.

The brethren were suffered to ride horses in
journeys; and God destroyed every one who wished
to kill them, so that men might glorify God the Al
mighty; and God was pleased with his people, and had
compassion on them. These things were caused by
the prayers of this father, Barsum. God gave him the
grace of prophecy, healing of bodies and souls, and
knowledge of things to come ; and he was accom
plished in all holiness. His look drew all men to
good works, and whosoever saw him did not wish to
leave him. This was for the grace and kindness and
love which were in him. He hated the glory of this
world, and feigned madness. But God has shown to
all that he is the wisest of men, whose single aim
was the love of God and doing his commandments.

378 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

Barsum was alway comforted by the Holy Spirit,
which dwelt in him. Ever he looked to God, to the
innocent angels of light, to the prophets, apostles,
martyrs, and saints. He went in the spirit to their
dwelling of light, as he showed to those whom he
trusted well. This father dwelt in the monastery
fifteen years, and his age was sixty years. His old
age was good and pleasing to God ; and when he
accomplished his good works, he died unto the Lord
who loved him, and inherited the lofty dwellings of
light with the holy saints. His body was buried in
the monastery of Sharan, known also by the name of
Abu Markura. This was in the year 1033 of the
martyrs J.

May his prayers be with us till the last breath.
Amen.

LEGEND OF THE VIRGIN'S ASCENSION.

On this day we feast the feast of the ascension of
the body of the immaculate Lady the Virgin Morto-
mariam2, Mother of Christ the Son of God, the Word
made flesh from her. After her death our fathers
the apostles were sorely grieved for loss of her, and
the Lord promised them that he would show her to
them in the flesh. On a certain day they saw her
in the flesh sitting at the right hand of him who was
made flesh from her, and she was in great glory.
She stretched forth her hand, and blessed every one
of the disciples ; and she was girt round by a great

1 If this date is correct, the ' Tree of Pearls ' is wrongly identi
fied at the beginning of the legend.

2 The Arabic is

CH. x.] Legends of the Saints. 379

company of angels and saints. David the prophet
praised her, and said, ' The queen stood at thy
right hand in raiment of gold/ Then the souls of
the disciples were glad, and they fell on their faces,
and returned full of joy.

This feast was appointed in the Church for the
everlasting remembrance of the Mother of God.

May her intercession be with us. Amen.

LEGEND OF SIMAN AL HABIS AL AMUDI, i.e.

SIMEON THE PRISONER OF THE PILLAR,

OR SIMEON STYLITES.

On this day died Simeon the Prisoner of the Pillar.
He was of Syria. When he was a child, he kept
sheep for his father, and he went to church every day.
After that the grace of the Lord moved him. So he
arose, and came to a monastery, wherein he continued
alway worshipping God with great devoutness and
diligence.

He was wont every day to carry dust and ashes
on his head, and he vexed himself with fastings and
great thirst. Then he bound his two sides against
the flesh with a rugged rope, till it ate its place away,
and an evil smell came forth. The monks could not
abide this evil smell, and would not suffer him to
come nigh them. Seeing the monks misliked him,
he came out from the monastery and went into a dry
pit, where he stood. The abbot of the monastery
saw a vision as it were of one saying unto him, 'Ask
of my servant Simeon' ; and in this vision he saw also
that he who appeared rebuked the monks for the

380 Ancient Coptic Chitrches. [CH. x.

departure of the saint from the monastery. The
abbot told his vision to the monks, who were sore
amazed, and soon came out searching after him.
Thereupon they found him in the pit, without food
or drink, and worshipped him, asking forgiveness of
him ; and they brought him back with them to the
monastery. When he saw them giving him glory
in the monastery, he could not suffer it ; but went
out, and came to a rock where he stood sixty days
without sleeping. Thereafter the angel of the Lord
appeared unto him, and said unto him that the Lord
had received his prayers for the salvation of his own
soul and of many others. Then he stood on a pillar
thirty cubits high for the space of fifteen years.
The Lord wrought at his hand many wonders ; and
he was wont to exhort all who came unto him. His
father searched after him, but found him not, and
died without seeing him. As for his mother, she
knew where he was after many years, and came to
him while he was on the pillar. She wept greatly,
and then fell asleep under the pillar. The saint
asked of God to do good unto her, and she died
in her sleep. They buried her under the pillar.

Howbeit, Satan had malice against Simeon, and
smote him in the legs with grievous sores. He
continued most of his time standing on one foot for
many years, until his leg was full of worms, which
fell down under the pillar. Once there came unto
him the chief of the robbers, and passed the night
nigh him. Simeon asked of God to do him evil : so
the robber died not many days after. Then he asked
of God, and God brought forth a fountain of water
under the pillar. After this he went to another very
high pillar, where he stood nigh thirty years : and

CH. x.] Legends of the Saints. 381

when he accomplished forty-eight years in prayer,
the Lord wishing to give him rest from the weari
ness of the flesh, he exhorted men and turned many
heathen to the Lord Jesus : then he died and went
unto the Lord.

The patriarch of Antioch, hearing of his death,
came and bore him to Antioch with great glory.

May his prayers be with us. Amen.

LEGEND OF MAR!NA.

On this day died the chosen saint, bride of Jesus
Christ, Marina.

She was the daughter of a heathen father and
mother, and her father was a priest of idols in
Antioch. He loved her very much, and she was
very beautiful to look upon. When she came to
the age of fifteen years, her mother died ; whereupon
her father brought her to a Christian woman, at
whose house she stayed till her father's death.

One day she heard her foster-mother telling of the
troubles of the saints and their martyrdoms, how
they shed their blood for the name of Christ. So,
desiring to become a martyr, she asked God to give
her power and help, that she might conquer the
heathen. At this time there came to the throne a
heathen king, known by the name of prince Valerius,
who came from Asia to Antioch to the end that he
might seize the Christians. It came to pass that
when St. Marina came out with her hired servants
and handmaids, the heathen prince saw her beauty,
and his heart departed out of him. He commanded
his soldiers to lay hands on her, that he might take

382 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

her unto him to wife. When the soldiers desired to
take her, she made the sign of the cross upon her
body, and said, ' Have mercy on me, O Lord, and
forsake me not.' The soldiers returned to the
governor, and told him, ' We were not able to take
the damsel, because she called on Jesus Christ.'
When he heard that, he commanded them to bring
her, and he questioned her of her faith. She answered
and said, ' I am a Christian, believing in Jesus of
Nazareth, who will deliver me from thine unbelief
and from the wickedness of thy heart.' Then the
prince, being wroth in his soul, straightway offered
a sacrifice to his abhorred gods ; and made her
stand before him, and told her, * Know, Marina, that
I have pity upon thee : so follow thou my counsel,
and offer sacrifice to the gods, and thou shalt have
great honour.'

She answered and said, 'I do not waver from the
worship of God, my God, but I offer the sacrifice of
thanksgiving to my Saviour Jesus Christ.' He said
to her, ' To this Galilean who was crucified of the
Jews ?' and threatened her with many punishments.
She did not obey him, but said she was ready to be
tormented and to rest with the wise virgins. So he
became angry, and commanded to beat her with
rods, and her blood ran upon the ground. Then
they combed her flesh with sharp knives, and threw
her into a dungeon. The Lord always cured her from
all this suffering. While she was in the dungeon
praying, a great dragon came out upon her, opened
wide his jaws, and swallowed her. Her soul was
ready to depart from her ; but she stretched out
her hands, and made the sign of the cross in the
dragon's belly. Forthwith the mouth of the dragon

CH. x.] Legends of the Saints. 383

gaped open, and she was delivered, and came out
in great safety. Then she turned and saw some
what like unto a black man, putting his hands
on his knees, and saying unto her, ' Cease to pray,
and obey the king's commandment.' When she
heard that, she caught him by the hair of the head,
and took a cudgel which she found in a corner of
the dungeon, and smote therewith the devil's head.
Thus was the devil tormented by her, and besought
her to lighten his suffering. She answered him
' Shut thy mouth ' : then she made the sign of the
cross upon him, and the earth opened and swallowed
him up.

The next day the king commanded her to be
brought before him, and bade her worship the idols.
She spake roughly unto him ; whereon he com
manded his soldiers to hang her up, and to kindle a
fire under her to burn her. After that they threw
her into the water to drown her : but she asked of
the Lord that this water might be a baptism unto
her. So a dove came down upon her carrying in
his mouth a crown of light. She plunged in the
water thrice. Many persons believed at that hour :
and their heads were taken by the sword. Howbeit
the prince grew weary of torturing her, and said, ' If
I leave her alive, all the people of Antioch will
believe/ So he commanded to take her head. The
executioner led her outside the city. There seeing
the Lord, to whom be glory, and angels of light, she
said unto the swordsman, 'Wait that I may pray':
and when her prayer was ended, she said, ' Do
thy bidding.' Howbeit he would not ; but she said,
1 Unless thou accomplish it, thou hast no lot or part
with me.' He went up to her exceeding sorrowful,

384 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

and made the sign of the cross upon the sword, and
took the head of the saint. Thus she won the crown
of martyrdom. The executioner went hastily to the
prince, and smote his own neck with the sword, con
fessing the Lord God of this martyr, and won ever
lasting happiness.

May their prayers be with us. Amen.

LEGEND OF TAKLA.

On this day died the apostolic and holy Takla.
This saint lived in the days of St. Paul: and it came to
pass that when St. Paul went out from Antioch into
Iconia, there was at Iconia a believer called Sifarus,
who took him to his house ; and a great multitude
came together to hear his doctrine.

This virgin, Takla, when she heard the apostle
speaking, looked from a window that she might
learn his doctrine, and continued in this estate
three days and three nights, neither eating nor
drinking. His words went down to the depths
of her heart and her soul. But her parents and
her servants became exceedingly sorrowful, and
desired her to change this way of thinking. It
came to pass that her father met Dimas and
Armukhanis, and he complained unto them of his
daughter. They made him ask help of the prince
against Paul, who bade Paul come, and examined
his doctrine and his estate. He found no cause
against him, but commanded to bind him.

As soon as the saint Takla heard thereof, she put
off her jewels, and went to the apostle in the dungeon,

CH. x.j Legends of the Saints. 385

and bowed herself before his feet. When her own
people found her not, they knew that she was at the
apostle's feet. So the prince ordered to burn her.
Her mother also cried out saying, ' Burn her,' that
all women might take warning of her example ;
because many noble women believed the word of
Paul. Then the prince commanded also to burn
Paul with her. So they brought them forth out
of the dungeon. As for Takla, her mind and her
eyes were with St. Paul. She beheld St. Paul
praying : and he ascended with his body through
the heaven. So, making the sign of the cross on
her body and her face, she cast herself into the fire.
Then the women who were standing by wept for
her ; but the Lord sent forthwith much rain and
lightning, and the furnace became like cold dew ;
and she was delivered from the fire, as one that
comes out of a garden. She went at once to the
place where St. Paul was hidden, and asked him
to cut her hair, and suffer her to be his handmaid.
He did this thing for her sake. When she went to
Antioch, one of the Batarka saw her, and finding her
very beautiful, desired to marry her : howbeit she
spake roughly unto him. Wherefore he stirred up
the ruler of the city against her ; who commanded
them to throw her unto the lions. She stayed
among the lions two days, and the lions licked her
feet. Then they bound her between two oxen, who
dragged her through all the city: and when this
did no harm unto her, they let her go free. She
went unto St. Paul, who comforted her, and increased
her in the faith, and bade her go and preach of
Christ. So she went to Iconia, where she preached
Christ; and then she went to her own country.

VOL. II.

386 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

There she converted her father and her mother
to believe in Christ Jesus; and after that, inasmuch
as she had accomplished her apostolic strivings and
her accepted warfare, the Lord desired to give her
rest from the troubles of this world. So she died,
and won the crown of them that confess and preach.
It is said that her body is now in Singar, as it is
written in the History of the Patriarchs.
May her prayers be with us. Amen.

LEGEND OF ABU

On this day won martyrdom the noble saint Abu
Sikhirun, who was of Kalin in the Gharbleh, a soldier
of Ariana, ruler of Ansina. When the command
ment of the heathen king Diocletian came to worship
idols, this saint stopped in the midst of the assembly
and spake scorn of the king and his gods. None
dare torment him by reason of his warlike strength :
but they imprisoned him in the ruler's prison. When
it happened that the ruler of Ansina came to the
city of Siut, they brought Abu Sikhirun unto him
and five soldiers with him, whose names are Alphanus,
Armasius, Aikias, Petrus, and Kiranius ; these agreed
with Abu Sikhirun to shed their blood for the name
of the Lord Jesus. When they came before the
ruler, he commanded to cut their girdles, and to
torture them. Some of these five were crucified,
and of some the heads were taken ; but it was com
manded that the saint Abu Sikhirun should be
beaten gloriously. Next, it was commanded to tear
off the scalp of his head even unto the neck : and
he was bound to the tail of a mule and dragged

CH. x.] Legends of the Saints. 387

through the city. Then he was cast into a tank full
of lead, and the tank was covered ; next he was
crushed together and thrown into a bath furnace.
But in all of these punishments the angel of the
Lord came unto him, encouraged him and made
him whole, comforted him and gave him much
patience. When they were perplexed by his torture,
they called a great magician, named Iskandaru, who
feigned to bewitch sun and moon, to ascend up into
the sky, and to have dealings with the stars. He
ordered the door of the bath to be shut : then he
took a snake, and as he uttered certain words the
snake was split asunder into two pieces : next, he
took its poison and its fat and its liver, and put them
into a brazen cauldron, and brought them unto the
saint. Then he made him enter into the bath, and
gave him to eat of this cooked poison. But the
saint cried aloud saying, ' O chief of devils, do all
thy power upon this son of Christ' ; and he suffered
no harm. The sorcerer was greatly astonished, and
the saint said unto him, ' The devil, whose help
thou dost implore, will torment thee by the power
of my Lord Jesus Christ.'

Forthwith the devil came, and began to buffet the
magician, until he believed in the Lord Jesus. The
ruler hearing thereof, took the head of the sorcerer,
and his wrath was greatly multiplied against the
saint. He tormented him with many torments, the
saint always thanking the Lord Jesus. At last he
commanded that his head should be taken by the
edge of the sword. So he won the crown of ever
lasting bliss.

May the intercession of this saint be with us, and.
guard us, and save us. Amen.

c c 2

388 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

LEGEND OF ST. SOPHIA.

On this day died the saint Sophia.

This saint went to church with some Christian
neighbours, and she believed in the Lord Jesus.
She went to the bishop of Manuf, who baptised her
in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost, one God ; and she continued in going to the
church. But a certain man went and told unto
Claudius, the ruler, that she was baptised. He
therefore made her come to him and questioned her
of the matter : and she confessed and denied it not.
He punished her with many punishments. First, he
beat her with thongs of cowhide : then he passed a
hot iron over all her joints, and hung her up. During
all this she was ever crying aloud, * I am a Christian/
So the ruler commanded to cut off her tongue, and
to lead her back to prison ; and he sent his wife unto
her, who began to speak softly and promised many
promises : but the saint heeded not. At last he
commanded to cut off her head. Then St. Sophia
prayed a long prayer, in the which she asked of God
to forgive the ruler and his soldiers for her sake.
Then she bowed her head to the swordsman, who
cut off her head with the edge of the sword ; and she
won the crown of martyrdom and immortality in the
kingdom of heaven.

A Christian woman took her holy body, which she
purchased for a great price, and wrapped it in many
precious wrappings, and put it in her house, and
here many wonders were shown from it. People
saw on the day of her festival a great light upon
her body, and much frankincense come forth there-

CH. x.] Legends of the Saints. 389

from. When Constantine became king of Constan
tinople, and heard of the body, he sent and trans
ported it to the city of Constantinople, and built to
her a great church in the which he placed her body.
Many miracles were shown from it.

May her prayers and blessings be with us, and
save us from the wicked enemy. Amen.

LEGEND OF ST. HELENA.

On this day we feast for the consecration of the
temple of the Holy Resurrection *.

The holy queen Helena in the twentieth year of
the reign of her son Constantine, after the assembly
of the holy council at Nicaea, took great riches and
said to her son, ' I have made a vow to go to the
Holy Resurrection, and to seek for the body of the
cross which giveth life.' The king was very glad,
and sent with her soldiers, and gave unto her much
wealth. When she came there and had taken a
blessing from these holy places, she began to search
for the cross, and she found it after much weariness.
She glorified it with great glorifying, and worshipped
it with great worship. Then she set to build the
temples of the Resurrection, and Golgotha, and
Bethlehem, and the Cavern and the Height, and
Gethsemane and all the temples, and to overlay
them all with jewels, and gold, and silver. At
Jerusalem was a holy bishop who counselled her
not to do this thing, and said unto her, ' After a
little time the heathen will come and spoil the

1 I. e. the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

3QO Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

places, and throw them down, and take away all
thy doing. Thou oughtest to build rather with
such good building as is customary, and give what
remains of the money to the poor.' She hearkened
to this counsel, and gave him much money, and
charged him so to do. When she came to her son,
and told him what she had done, he was greatly
rejoiced and sent other money, and straitly urged
them to build, and commanded wages to be given
in full tale to the workers at the end of every day,
lest they should become weary and God be against
him. When the building was accomplished, in the
thirtieth year of the reign of Constantine, he sent
many vessels and much precious apparel, and charged
the patriarch of Constantinople to take with him
bishops, and sent to Athanasius, patriarch of Alex
andria, to take with him also bishops, that they
might assemble with the patriarch of Antioch and
of Jerusalem, and consecrate the temples that were
built. All were assembled and bode until the six
teenth day of the month Tot. Then they consecrated
the temples which were built : and on the seventy-
eighth day they passed all round these places carry
ing the cross, and worshipped the Lord, offering
the mysteries and glorifying the cross. Then they
departed to their own homes.

May their intercession be with us till the last
breath. Amen.

THE FINDING OF THE CROSS.

On this day is the remembrance of the glorious
cross of our Lord Jesus. This was discovered by

CH. x.j Legends of the Saints. 391

the God-loving queen Helena, mother of Constan-
tine, when she cleared away the heap at Golgotha.
Now the reason of this heap is, when the miracles
were shown from the holy sepulchre, such as raising
of the dead and curing of cripples, the Jews waxed
wroth, and cried out in all Judea and Jerusalem that
every one who sweeps his house or who has dust
must cast it upon the sepulchre of Jesus of Nazareth.
They continued in doing this above two hundred
years, so that the heap became a mountain ; till
St. Helena came and took the Jews, of whom she
imprisoned one Juda till he revealed unto her the
place. Then she discovered the holy cross, and
built for it a church, which was consecrated. They
feast unto the cross on the seventeenth day of the
month Tot ; and all the Christians were wont to
make pilgrimage to this church at the feast of the
Resurrection.

It came to pass that Isaac of Samra, while he was
walking with some men in the way, waxed athirst
and found no water. They passed nigh unto a pit
wherein was bitter water of an evil savour. The
people were greatly straitened, and Isaac of Samra
began to mock them. The priest waxed zealous for
zeal of God and disputed with Isaac ; but Isaac said
unto him, ' If I behold power in the name of the
cross, I will believe in Christ.' Then the priest
prayed over the bitter water, and it became exceed
ing sweet, so that all the people drank thereof and
their cattle also. Howbeit Isaac, when he wished to
drink, found the water which he had put in his bottle
full of worms. He wept, and bowed himself before
the priest Ogidos, and believed in Christ, and drank
of the water, in the which was the virtue to be sweet

392 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

unto believers and bitter to unbelievers. Moreover
in the water was seen a cross of light. They built
upon the pit a church : and when Isaac came to
Jerusalem, he went unto the bishop and was baptised
by him, he and all his family. The cross was found
in the tenth day of the month Barmahat ; and as this
day falleth in time of fast, the feast was made on the
day of the consecration of the church, which is the
seventeenth day of Tot.

Glory and worship to our Lord Jesus Christ for
ever and ever. Amen.

LEGEND OF GIRGIS OF ALEXANDRIA.

On this day obtained martyrdom Mari Girgis of
Alexandria. His father was a merchant of Alexan
dria : and having no son, he went to the church of
Mari Girgis on the day of his feast (which was on
the seventh day of Hator), and asked this saint to
intercede for him before the Lord, that he might
bestow on him a son. The Lord heard his prayer,
and gave him a son whom he called Girgis. The
mother of this saint was sister to Armenius, governor
of Alexandria.

His parents died, and he remained at his uncle's
house. His age was then twenty-five years; and
he was loving to the poor, and merciful and kind.
Armenius had an only daughter, who went on a
certain day with her friends to walk. It happened
that she saw outside the city a monastery, in which
were hidden monks who were praising God with
sweet voices. Their praise was rooted in her heart,
and she began to ask the young man Girgis, her

CH, x.] Legends of the Saints. 393

aunt's son, the meaning of these hymns. He
declared it unto her, and declared also the punish
ment of sinners, and the reward of the righteous.
When she returned to the house, she avowed to her
father that she believed in Christ Jesus.

At the first he spake smoothly unto her to return
from that way, but she hearkened not ; then he
commanded to take her head, and she won the
crown of martyrdom. Howbeit certain men told
the governor that Girgis was the cause of all these
things. So he took him and tormented him very
hardly, and then sent him to the village of Ansina,
where he was tormented with all sorts of torments :
and at the last they took his head, and he won the
crown of martyrdom. A deacon called Samuel took
the holy body and went unto Memphis. When his
uncle's wife knew that, she sent and took his body,
and put it with the body of her daughter.

May their prayers and intercessions be with us.
Amen.

LEGEND OF ABBA MAHARUAH.

On this day won martyrdom Abba Maharuah, who
was from Faium, a God-fearing man. When he
heard the news of the martyrs, he came to Alexan
dria desiring to die in the name of Christ Jesus.
It was told him in a vision, ' It is destined for thee
to go to Antioch.' While he was thinking after this
vision how he could reach Antioch, and was seeking
a ship, the Lord sent unto him his angel, who carried
him on wings from Alexandria to Antioch, and made
him stand before Diocletian the king, and confess

394 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

before him Christ Jesus. The king asked him of
his name and his country, and was astonished at his
presence ; and offered him many rewards and benefits,
the which he refused. Then the king threatened
him, but the saint feared not : so he commanded to
torment him. They tormented him once ; once they
let loose upon him lions ; once they burned him in
fire ; once they put him in a large cauldron of copper.
Thereafter they took his head by the edge of the
sword, and he won the crown of martyrdom. He
was made an exchange for all the martyrs of
Antioch who won martyrdom in Egypt.
May his intercession be with us. Amen.

LEGEND OF THE ANGEL MIKHAIL (MICHAEL).

On this day we feast for the angel Michael, chief
of the angels, the merciful angel who makes inter
cession for all mankind.

This angel was seen of Joshua, the son of Nun,
in great glory in the likeness of a soldier of a king.
He was afraid and bowed before him, saying, ' O sir,
art thou with me or against me ? ' The angel
answered and said, ' I am the chief of the powers
of heaven, and on this day I will deliver the
Amalekites into thy hand, and give thee dominion
over Ariha.'

This is the angel who comforts and strengthens
the saints, and makes them longsuffering, until their
war is accomplished. Charities and feasts were
made unto the saints in his name on the twelfth
day of every month : because this angel asks of

CH. x.] Legends of the Saints. 395

the Lord the fruits of the earth and the rise of
the Nile, that the Lord may make them perfect.

Once a man called Dorotheos and his wife Theista
were wont to feast to the angel Michael, on the
twelfth day of every month ; and for this cause God,
by the intercession of the angel, granted them riches
out of poverty : for these holy persons finding nought
wherewith to make the feast, took their clothes to
sell them in order to make the feast. The angel
appeared to Dorotheos, and commanded him to go
to the seller of sheep and buy from him a lamb for
one-third of a dinar, and to a fisherman to buy from
him a fish for one-third of a dinar : and not to open
the fish. Then he must go to the seller of wheat
and take from him all that he needs, and not sell his
clothes. When the man made the feast, as he was
bidden, and called the people as was his wont, he
went to search for a little wine in a cupboard, and
was astonished to find much wine, more than he had
need of. When the guests went away, the angel
came in the likeness which he had when he appeared
to Dorotheos, and bade him open the fish, in which
he found a parcel containing three hundred dinars
and some gold. The angel said to them, ' This is
the price of the sheep, and the fish, and the meat,
and the gold is thine : because the Lord remembered
thee and made mention of thy charities. So hath
he rewarded thee in this world, and he will reward
thee in the world to come.' While they were
astonished, he said unto them, ' I am Michael, one
of the angels, who have delivered thee from all thy
troubles, and offered thy charities before the Lord/
They worshipped him, and he vanished out of their
sight, and rose up into heaven.

396 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

This angel has wrought many wonders.

May his intercession be with us for ever. Amen.

STORY OF ANBA ZACHARIAS.

On this day died the father, the patriarch Anba
Zacharias.

This saint was of Alexandria, wherein he was a
priest. He had a good repute, chaste in body, meek
in behaviour, venerable in years. When the patri
arch Anba Philotheos died, the bishops were gathered
together with the Holy Ghost to choose under God's
counsel one who should be convenient. While they
were at the church of St. Mark the Apostle, seeking
for the one convenient, they heard that a certain man,
having procured by power of station and money a
letter from the sultan, was coming and bringing with
him servants, thinking to be patriarch. Therefore
being sorely grieved against a man who would fain
become patriarch by power of money and place, they
continued in prayer to God that he would choose for
them a patriarch. During that time Zacharias,
while he was coming down from the staircase of the
church, carrying in his hand a bottle of vinegar, let
slide his foot, and fell rolling down to the lowest
step ; howbeit the bottle of vinegar in his hand
remained whole and unbroken. The bishops and
priests were sore amazed hereat, and asked the
people of him, both great and small. Inasmuch as
all men ascribed unto him great virtue, the laity1

1 The laity (notables) always have a voice and meet with the
bishops in council for the election. The khedive has a veto.

CH. x.] Legends of the Saints. 397

agreed with the bishops to make him patriarch, and
he was chosen.

Many sorrows accompanied him ; amongst the
which a monk sued him at law before the governor,
who took him and bound him and threw him to
lions : but the lions wrought him no harm. The
governor took vengeance on the keeper of the lions.
Then he made the lions hungry and slew a beast in
sacrifice, and smearing the patriarch with its blood
threw him to the lions. Yet they wrought him no
evil. Then the governor bound him in prison by
the space of three months, and threatened him,
sometimes with killing, sometimes with casting to
lions, and with burning by fire, if he would not
forsake his faith. None of these three things made
him afraid. Then he promised great reward, vowing
to make him judge of judges of the Muslims ; but
all these promises bent him not. And when the
governor brought him out from the dungeon, he
also vexed him in many things : among which many
churches were demolished. And the persecution
endured for nine years. Then the Lord God the
Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, made all these
troubles to vanish away, and the governor com
manded the saint to repair the churches, and to
restore unto them all things whatsoever were taken
away from them. The churches were built again,
and Zacharias also set to build other churches :
and it was ordered that cymbals be beaten in the
churches.

Thus the things appertaining to the churches and
to the faithful became straight, and this father lived
thereafter twelve years, and was chief during twenty-
eight years.

398 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

Then he removed to the Lord.
May his prayers be with us and preserve us all.
Amen.

LEGEND OF PETER THE PATRIARCH, THE LAST OF
THE MARTYRS.

On this day won martyrdom Anba Butros,
patriarch of Alexandria, who is the last of all the
martyrs.

His father was an assistant to a priest in
Alexandria, and he was called Theodosius. His
mother's name was Sophia.

Both feared God greatly; and they had no son.
On the fifth day of the month Abib, which is the
feast of the two saints Peter and Paul, the woman
saw a company of Christians walking with their sons
before them, all dressed in goodly raiment. She
waxed exceeding sorrowful, and wept, and asked
the Lord Jesus with tears before the holy altar to
bestow on her a son. That night Peter and Paul
appeared unto her, and told her that the Lord had
heard her prayers, and would give her a son who
should be called Peter ; and they commanded her to
go to the patriarch that he might pray over her.
When she awakened she told her husband, who was
greatly rejoiced. Then she went unto the patriarch,
and asked of him to pray over her, telling him the
vision. He gave her his blessing, and after a little
while a son was given to her, this saint Peter.
When he was seven years old, they delivered him to
the patriarch, as Samuel the prophet was delivered.
He became as the patriarch's own son, and was

CH. x.j Legends of the Saints. 399

consecrated by him, first reader, then deacon, then
priest. He helped him greatly in the business of the
church ; and when the patriarch who is called Anba
T'auna was dying, he counselled that Peter should
be chosen in his place. So when he came to the
chair, the church was filled with light from him.
This came to pass in the days of Diocletianus.

Now there was at Antioch a patriarch who
followed the king's counsel, and he had two sons.
Therefore their mother, being unable to baptise
them in their own country, took them with her to
Alexandria. But while she was yet at sea the
waves became furious ; and fearing that her sons
might die in the water without being baptised, she
wounded her breast, and with her blood she made
the sign of the cross upon the face of her two sons,
and baptised them in the name of the Holy Trinity.
Howbeit, they were delivered from the waves, and
came to Alexandria ; where they were brought to be
baptised with other children ; but whenever the
patriarch wished to baptise them, the water became
stone. This came to pass thrice. So the patriarch
asked her of the matter, and she told him all that
had happened in the way. He was astonished and
glorified God, saying, ' Thus saith the Church, that
there is only one baptism.'

In the days of this Peter, Arius, the disobedient,
was excommunicated of the patriarch, because he
hindered him and was stubborn. When Arius
heard that St. Peter was always teaching the people
in every place not to worship heathen gods, he sent
messengers to take his head ; who caught Peter and
bound him. When the citizens heard of this thing,
they took their swords and their armour, and came

4oo Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

to the dungeon to fight with the king's messengers
(sic). When Peter saw that many would be killed
for his sake, he wished to die for his people and to
be with Christ : so he sent to bid all the people
come, and comforted them, and counselled them to
abide in the true faith. Howbeit Arius, knowing
that Peter was going to the Lord leaving him ex
communicate, besought the chief of the priests to
make intercession with the patriarch to loose him ;
but Peter would not. Then he told unto them a
vision which he saw in the night ; wherein he beheld
Jesus, his raiment parted asunder, and his hand
covering his body with the robe. And Peter said,
' O Lord, who hath parted thy raiment ? ' And he
answered, 'Arius ; because he hath parted me from
my Father. Wherefore beware thou of him.'
Thereafter the patriarch asked of the king's mes
sengers in secret to break through the prison wall
from within and from without, and to take him to
accomplish the king's order. They did as he com
manded ; they, took him out to the city to the place
where was buried St. Mark the Evangelist. There
he prayed ; and after greeting all the people he gave
himself up to the swordsman, and prayed, saying,
' O Lord Christ, suffer my blood to extinguish the
worship of idols.' A voice from heaven came unto
him and was heard by a holy virgin, the voice as of
one saying, f Amen, be it unto thee according to thy
wish/ The swordsman took his holy head, and his
body remained standing upright by the space of two
hours, till the people came ; who came in haste, being
nigh to the dungeon, yet not knowing what had
happened unto him, until one told them. So they
took St. Peter, and wrapped him, and made him sit

CH. x.] Legends of the Saints. 401

on his chair, on the which none ever saw him sit
before while he was in life. For while he was alive
he said, ' I sit not thereon, because I see the power
of the Lord sitting upon it/ Then they buried him
in the place of the bodies of the saints. He was
eleven years on the throne.

May his prayers and intercessions be with us.
Amen.

STORY OF THE PATRIARCH ANBA MARKUS,
about 1800 A.D.

On this day died the patriarch Anba Markus, the
cvui of the patriarchs of Alexandria.

This father was of a village called Tammah, and
from his youth loved ever to wander in solitude.
Since therefore, by exceeding love for loneliness, he
desired to become a monk, he went to the monastery
of St. Antonius, father of monks. There he became
monk, and waged much spiritual warfare. When the
patriarch Anba Yuanis1 the cvn died, all the bishops
and priests assembled in Cairo, and made a drawing
of lots to find the person meet for the office. When
they had prayed to God to guide them in choosing
the man most worthy, the lot fell upon Markus. So
they sent after him the abbot of the monastery, who
was accompanied by a troop of Beduin, and brought
him to Cairo, albeit against his will, bound with iron
chains. The fathers, the bishops, and the priests
came together, and made him patriarch of the chair
of St. Mark of Alexandria. His name before he
was made patriarch was John, and they gave him

1 A Coptic form of Yuhanna or John.
Dd

VOL. II.

4O2 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

the name of Mark l. During his bishopric there
were many afflictions and many adversities, and this
chiefly, that two years after his coming to the chair
a multitude from the Frank countries, called the
French, came and took possession of Egypt. The
inhabitants of Cairo rose against them, and there
was war between them for three days. Then the
patriarch changed his house from the Harat-ar-Rum
to the Azbiklah. Then a vizier from Turkey came,
accompanied by certain English folk, and they drave
out the French from Egypt. The people suffered
very much at the hand of the French : many places
were laid waste, and many of the churches made
desolate. The patriarch also suffered many adversi
ties ; for which cause he left Harat-ar-Rum, and came
to the Azbikiah, where he built a large precinct and a
large church in the name of St. Mark the Evangelist.
This is the first who inhabited the Azbiklah. He
was always repairing churches and monasteries which
were in ruin ; and was ever awake to preach to the
people, and to teach them night and day. Moreover
he consecrated many bishops. And when the metro
politan of Abyssinia died, and certain monks and
priests came with a letter from the king of Abys
sinia asking a metropolitan, Markus consecrated for
him one who went with the Abyssinian priests, and
also sent to them books of sermons and of doctrines,
because he had heard that certain of them had
become heretic. A wonder was also wrought by
this father on this wise. One year the river Nile
did not overflow its borders ; wherefore the viceroy

L This was only because his predecessor was called John. Mark
is not an official title.

CH. x.] Legends of the Saints. 403

asked of the Coptic patriarch and the other patri
archs to pray for the rise of the water of the Nile.
So Markus and all the priests and Christian people
came together and prayed to God, who hearkened to
their prayers, and made arise the water of the Nile
higher than its wont.

When he was sick with the sickness of death he
called unto him the chief of the bishops, and said
unto him, * My time is come to leave this world : so
must thou and thy brethren meet together and
consecrate a patriarch : neglect it not.' After three
days his soul departed to the Lord, and he was
buried in the church of Azbikiah which he had
built ; and great was the pomp of his burial. He
sat on the chair thirteen years and four months.

May his blessing be with us till the last breath.
And to our Lord be praise for ever. Amen.

D d 2

INDEX TO THE SECOND VOLUME.

ACANTHUS, pp. 243. 244. 245.

'Arjp 46.

Alb, see Vestments.
Alchemy 251.
Alms-dish 289.
Altar 1-36.

- board 3. 7. 283.

- canopy 28 seq. 194.

- casket, see Ark.

- cavity 305. 352. 353.

- coverings 35~36- 283-

- lights 56.

— of wood 6-7.

- portable 25-28.

— slab 7 seq.
Ambon 64. 314.
Amice, see Vestments.
'Apvos 280.
Ampulla 56.
Amula 56.

Angelic habit 308. 323.
Anointing the sick 326 seq.
Antimensia 27.
Apostolical Constitutions 268.
Apse 194.
Aquamanile 54.
Arcosolia 8. 13.
Ark 42 seq. 55. 283.
Armenian altar 23. 33. 60.

- usage 49. 50. 263. 280. 328.

349- 35o- 35i- 352.

— vestments 122. 126. 142. 162.

169. 184. 214 bis. 227. 233.
Armlet, see Vestments.
Aspersion 268. 292. 339. 345.
Aster or dome 39.
Aumbry 78.

Babylon 167.

Baldakyn, see Altar-canopy.

Ballin, see Vestments.

Balsam 331.

Banner 311.

Baptism 262 seq. 388. 399.

— of fire 266.

Baptistery 264. etc.

Basin, see Ewer.

Beduin 240.

Bell 45. 50. 79. 273. 316. 323.

Benediction 292. 316. 327.

- of oil 333 seq.

- of palm 349.

- of water 266. 271. 272. 339.

344- 346. 350- 391-
Biruna 213.
Books 239-246.
Bowing before altar 309. 319.
Bread, eucharistic, 277.
Breastplate 102. 123.
British usage 171. 198. 215.
Burial of the rood 352.
Burnus, see Cope and Chasuble

(Vestments).

Cambutta 228.

Candelabrum 68. etc.

Cap of priesthood 209 seq.

Casula 196.

Chains put on patriarch 306. 309.

401.

Chalice 37 seq.
Charta bombycina 241.
Chasuble, see Vestments.
Chrism 19 seq. 269. 271. 299.

337- 340- 343- etc.

VOL. II.

406

Index.

Churches built over martyrs'
bodies 362. 367. 368. 369.
388.

— dedicated to martyrs 360. 365.
Cidaris 203 n.

Circumcision 263.

Colobion no.

Coloured vestments 112. 113. 195.

196. 200.
Confession 277. 296. 298. 315.

320.

Confessionary, see Crypt.
Confirmation 262 seq.
Consecration of altar 343. etc.

- of baptistery 344 seq.

- of bishop, see Orders.

- of church 338 seq. 363. 372.

39°- 39*.

Cope, see Vestments.
Coptic language 247-257.

— dialects of 255.
Corona 75.

Corporal 17. 45. 48. 50. 315. 335.
Crewet 55. 271.
Cross, amulet 233

— benedictional 57. 234-235.

273- 3i5- 323- 325-

- of consecration 19. 21. 22.

340.

- pectoral 231.

— processional 233. 234. 309.

335-
Crown, baptismal 273.

- bridal 63. 305. 325.

- episcopal, see Vestments.
Crucifix 57.

Crutch or staff 83. 225.
Crypt 13 seq.
Cucullus 198.
Cufic writing 253.
Cumhdach 246.
Cursive writing 241.
Curtain 30 seq. 39. 194.
Cymbal 82. 240. 273. 397.

Dalmatic, see Vestments.
Demotic writing 249. 250. 251.

Dikanikion 219.
Diptychs 49. 289.

di(TKOKaXi>fj.p.a 46.

Dome, eucharistic, see Aster.
Dove 383.

231.

144 n. 163. 169.

Egyptian mythology 94.
Elevation of host 82. 182. 183

291.

Emblems 92.

Enamelling on glass 70-71.
Ephod 98. 102. 123.
firifiaviKia 104. etc. : see Vestment?
Epiphany ceremonies 346 seq.

- tank 349.

enirpaxrjXiov 128 etc.: see Vest-

ments.
cireofus IO2. 203. etc. : see Amice

(Vestments).

Eras, Arabic terms for, 96 n.
Ethiopia 25. etc.
Eucharist 275 seq. 373. etc.
Eulogiae 292.
Ewer 53.

Excommunication 399, 400.
Exorcism 269. 272.

Fan, see Flabellum.

Fanon 122.

Fasting 23. 276. 296. 316. 320.

354-
Flabellum 46 seq. 292. 309. 335.

339-

- processional 49.
Font 271.

Fresco, see Mural painting.
Frontal for lectern 68.

Gabathae 72.
Galilaeon 272. 273. 331.
Gallican usage 161. 171.
Georgia 51.

Girdle 359. 386 (see also Vest
ments).

- at baptism 273. 274.

Index.

407

Girdle at marriage 324.

Glove 233.

Gong 81.

Good Friday 50. 351.

Gospel, book of, see Textus.

- stand 59. 60. 273. 274.
Greater entrance 284.

Greek altar 6. 20. 23. 25. 32-36.

— language 255.

— usage 44. 80. 169. 215. 280.

293- 328. 337- 342-43 etc.

- vestments passim, see chapters

on vestments.
Griffin's egg 78.

Handbell, see Bell.

Hasirah, see Mat.

Hieroglyphics 249.

History of the Patriarchs 386.

Hood 183.

Hours of prayer, Coptic 349 n.

Iconostasis 32. 33. etc.

Illumination 241 seq.

Images 83-84.

Immersion 267. 383.

Imposition of hands 310. 315.

320. 321. 322.
Incense 270. 285. 286. 325. 335

etc.

- box 62.
Infulae 214.

Insufflation 271. 273. 320. 321.
Irish usage 51. 60. 61. 81. 112

171. 197. 215. 229. 245.
Isbodikon 279. 290. 291.

Jewelled vestments 98. 168. 177.
Jordan 265.

2O2.

Kiss of peace, see Pax.
Kissing altar 287. 315. 321.

— bishop 317.

— cross 314.

— curtain 283.

— gospel 286.

Kissing threshold of sanctuary,

287. 315.
Kneeling 277. 290. 339.

Labyrinth 368.

Lafafah, see Corporal.

Lamps 69 seq. 194. 327.

Lance, eucharistic 44.

Language, Coptic 247-257.

Lectern 65 seq.

Legend 89. 266. 297. 306. 312.

355- 357 seq.
Lenten veil, see Veil.
Lights, ceremonial use of, 39. 55-

96. 273.274. 284. 285. 286.

289. 294.321.323.326.328.

335- 344- 346. 351-

Liturgies 282.

Magician 387.
Malabar Christians 134.
Mandatum 350.
Maronite altar 24.

— usage 50. 80.

— vestments 122. 127. 134- *36-

147. 162. 187. 213. 227.
Marriage crown 63.
Marriage of clergy 305. 313. 3 T 9-
Mass for the dead 297.
Mat, eucharistic 44- etc.
Matrimony 323.
Melkite community 48. 49. 61.

106. 133. 276. 348.
_ vestments 116. 132. 138. 160.

168. 191. 207. 219. 237.
Mention at the mass 289 n.
Milk and honey, 270. 272. 273.
Miracles 388.
Mitra, 207.

Mitre, see Crown (Vestments).
Monuments 203.
Mosque 77.

Mount Athos, 80. 91. 93- 96-
Mural paintings 83 seq. 36°-

4o8

Index.

Myron 330 : see also Chrism and
Oils.

Napkin 164.

Nestorian altar 6. 24. 33.

- chalice 38.

- usage 77. 263. 280. 305.

- vestments 127. 142. 170. 187.

227.

Nec^cAj; 46.
Nile, rise of 395. 403.

Oils, holy 56. 269. 270. 272. 325.
327. 331 seq. : see also
Chrism and Galilaeon.

oivdvdr) 28.

Olive branch 299.
Orders 301 seq.

— archdeacon 321.

— archpriest or kummus 318.

- bishop 313.

— deacon 320.

- metropolitan 312.

- monk 308. 322.

- patriarch 302seq. 396. 401. etc.

- priest 319.

- reader 322.

- sacristan 301.

- singer 301. 322.

- subdeacon 321. 322.
Osiris, worship of 94. 248.
Ostrich-egg 77.

Oven 277.

Oxford University and the study
of Coptic 257 n.

1 60 n.
Palm 344. 349.
— Sunday 349.
Paschal candle 68.
Paten 39. etc.
Patriarch, see Orders.
Pax 49. 60. 270. 286. 315.
Pelican 243.
Penance 277. 298.

TrepiarTTjdiov 122.

Persecution 375.

Persian martyrs 369.
(paivd>\ioi' etc. 101.
(pctKLoXiov 149 n.
Phare 74.

Pictures 87 seq. 311. 349.
Pilgrimage 355. 391.
Piscina 17.
Plane ta 196.
TroXvo'ravpiov 196.
Pope, title of 302.
Prayer before altar 398.

- to saints 96.

Procession 48. 49. 176. 191. 273.
309- 3"- 3i3- 3M- 319 bis.
321.326.328.335. 339-340.

343- 349- 350. 352. 353- 390-
Prostration 296. 343.
Pulpit 65.
Purgatory 297.
Purification 263.

55-

Real Presence, doctrine of 296-

297.
Relics 12 seq. 68. 311. 342.

369-
Reservation of host 54. 293.

- of hallowed water 267.
Ring 214. 233. 324.

pirridiov 49.

Rosary 238.

Sacraments, the Coptic 262-329.

Sacred letters of Sanutius 3.

Sacring bell 82.

Sagavard 214.

Salt, use of 274 n. 282. 292.

341-

Sanctus bell 82.

Sandals 233.

Screen 194. etc.

Sees, the Coptic 318.

Semantron 80.

Sepulcrum 17.

Serpent 218. 219. 223. 224.

Service books 258 seq.

Sick, communion of the 295.

Index.

409

Sign of the cross 270. 274. 287.

288. 299. 315. 319. 320.

322.325.344.345. 366. 382

bis. 383. 384. 399.
Singing-irons 281.
Spoon, eucharistic 40. 276. 291.

321.
Stamping the housel 279-280.

(TTtxapiov IOI. 115-

Stole, see Vestments.
Synaxar 259.
Syrian altar 24. 27.

- usage 48. 263. 338.

- vestments 122. 136. 140. 141.

142. 162. 166. 170. 185. 202.

212. 226. 227.

Tabak, see Mat.
Tailasan, see Vestments.
Tarbush 201.

Teaching of the Apostles 268.
Textus 57 seq. 273. 309. 310.
317. 322. 327. 339.

SaXaaa-a 17.
Throne 309. 317.
Thurible 309. 339. etc.

6v(na(TTr]piov I.

Tiara 207. 215.
Tonsure 322.
Tower 81.
Tribune 309. 314.
Turban 375. 377.

Urceolus 54.

Varkass 122.

Vartaped 227. 228.

Veil, eucharistic, 45. 285. 286. etc.

- Lenten 35.

- of crozier 219.
Vestments 17. 97-238."
— Alb 99.

Vestments.

— Amice 98-100. 117 seq. 276.

— Armlet or sleeve or epimani-

kion 99. 100. 104. 114. 163
seq. 165.

— Ballin 1 1 8.

— Chasuble 101. 105. 173 seq.

199.

- Cope 99-100. 173 seq. 199.

— Crozier or staff 217 seq. 346.

- Dalmatic 98. 109 seq. 276.

- Epigonation 169. 235 seq.

- Girdle 98-100. 103-104. 124

seq.

— Maniple 98. 138. 144 n. 163.

164.

- Mitre or crown 120. 156. 184.

200 seq.

— Omophorion or pall 143 seq.

162.

- Rational 101. 102. 117 n. 122.

- Shamlah 118 seq. 314.

— Stole 99. 127 seq.

epitrachelion or patrashil

128. 129 seq.

- orarion 128. 134 seq. 321.

— Superhumeral 101. 102.

— Tailasan 120.
Vestments, eastern origin of 125.

Wafer 278 seq.

Wanderers of the desert 372. 374.

Washing the altar 9. 342.

- of eucharistic vessels 292.

— of hands at mass 287.

- of feet 122. 145 n. 350. 361.
Water mixed with wine 284.
Wine, eucharistic, 281.

- for lamp 329.

- other use of 341.
Women 277. 291.
Worshipping the patriarch 312.

THE END.

PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY

133

188M

V.2

C.I

ROBA

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "The ancient Coptic churches of Egypt"

See other formats